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Russian law enforcement lifted pre-trial detention for Mihran Poghosyan, former MP and chief of the Compulsory Enforcement Service facing corruption charges. The information was confirmed by Public Relations Division at Prosecutor General's Office.

Russian law enforcement officers detained Mihran Poghosyan in April. The ex-official was located in the Russian Republic of Karelia. A Yerevan court allowed the Special Investigative Service to arrest Poghosyan after he was charged with abusing his powers to enrich himself and companies linked to him.

Following the arrest, the Russian court upheld the petition by Prosecutor General's Office to use arrest as a preventive measure to consider the matter of extraditing Poghosyan to Armenia. Later, the Russian side turned down Armenia’s request for the extradition citing Article 19 of the 1993 Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters. The decision said extradition to Armenia might “undermine the sovereignty or security of the requested Contracting Party (i.e. Russia) or contradict its legislation.”