12:12, 18 October 2017

Armenian philanthropist Levon Airapetyan dies in penal colony in Russia

Levon Airapetyan. Photo © Sputnik/ Yekaterina Chesnokova
https://ru.armeniasputnik.am/incidents/20171018/9092961/umer-rossijskij-biznesmen-i-izvestnyj-mecenat-levon-ajrapetyan.html

Today, businessman Levon Airapetyan has died in a Mordovian penal colony. His funeral will be held in Moscow, reported his daughter Anzhelika Airapetyan.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 15, 2014, Levon Airapetyan was detained in Moscow on suspicion of embezzlement and laundering money, acquired by criminal means. On April 14, 2016, the court sentenced him to four years of imprisonment.

Levon Airapetyan was one of the ten richest members of the Armenian Diaspora in the world. He was a major investor in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian businessman was lobbying at the world level the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire.

Levon Airapetyan had several heart attacks and suffered from cancer. Recently, his health state became extremely severe. The defence repeatedly requested the court to pronounce conditional early relief (CER) for Levon Airapetyan, the "Rusarminfo" reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Author: Tigran Petrosyan

Source: CK correspondent