Head of Dashnaktsutyun faction, activist arrested in Yerevan

Artavazd Margaryan, head of Armenia’s Dashnaktsutyun faction in the Council of Elders of Artashat, has been detained for 72 hours, Report informs referring to Sputnik Armenia.

Party activist Gerasim Vardanyan was also detained.

“The detention is obviously illegal, it is devoid of any logic. You won’t believe it, but Margaryan was detained only because he has a phone,” lawyer Arsen Babayan wrote.

Gor Abrahamyan, spokesman for the Investigative Committee of Armenia, said that the searches in the homes of a number of people, including Vardanyan, are related to a court decision issued as part of a criminal proceeding that began back in August 2022.

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Searches are being carried out in the homes of Dashnaktsutyun party members since early morning in the Ararat district and in Yerevan, MP from Hayastan faction Kristine Vardanyan said.

Report informs via Sputnik-Armenia that so far, there is no information about the detainees, but according to Vardanyan's assessment, these are 'the next illegal actions with political goals.'

In turn, Benik Galstyan, the lawyer of Dashnaktsutyun activist Gerasim Vardanyan, noted that the house of his client in Artashat was also being searched, and Vardanyan himself was invited for interrogation within an unspecified case.