Vanadzor City Council Member Accused of Beating Local Church Head Released on Own Recognizance

Arkady Peleshyan, the newly-elected Vanadzor city council member accused of severely beating on October 4 the head of the Armenian Evangelical Church of Vanadzor, has been released on his own recognizance Wednesday evening; before that, the representative of the Armenian Renaissance party (formerly Rule of Law) had been taken for interrogation, where he refused to testify, Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper reports.

Peleshyan, the daily writes, has a prior criminal conviction for hooliganism; furthermore, “according to circulating rumors, Peleshyan is a recreational drug user and on the day of the incident he was most likely acting under the influence of alcohol as well as other drugs.”

Earlier, Armenian media reported that Peleshyan has kinship ties to the deputy speaker of Armenian parliament Eduard Sharmazanov. Speaking to Haykakan Zhamanak, Sharmazanov's brother, Erik Sharmazanov, said he is the godfather of Peleshyan's kids. Erik Sharmazanov himself is the chief of Vanadzor's Taron police department which, in turn, had received the beating report.