US businessman assassinated in Armenia

As reported today by the police, they found the body of Nazaret Berberyan, a US resident of Armenian origin, who had disappeared earlier in Armenia, with traces of violence.

"As a result of joint actions of the police and National Security Service, on May 15, on the 25th kilometre of the Yerevan-Sevan highway in a roadside ravine, the body of Nazaret Berberyan with traces of violence was found," the police have reported.

On April 25, 2009, at 8:00 p.m. local time, businessman Nazaret Berberyan, 57, a citizen of the USA, went out of his house in Amiryana Street in the centre of Yerevan and never came back.

The dark-green Toyota Land Cruiser car, belonging to Berberyan, was found deserted at the Armenian International Airport Zvartnots, as the "News-Armenia" Agency reports. The family of Berberyan, which lives in the USA, promised a reward of 250,000 US dollars for information about his whereabouts.

Mr Berberyan was the owner of premium-class real estate located in the crossing of Abovyana and Pushkina Streets in the centre of Yerevan. The businessman was also building a hotel in the territory of the industrial object named "Linares Company". He also owned a carpet factory in Dalar village in the Ararat District.

Back on May 5, a criminal case was opened on the fact of Berberyan's disappearance under part I, Article 104, of the Criminal Code of Armenia ("Murder"), as the "Armenia Today" writes.