Avetik Chalabian leads the Hayakve opposition movement that endorsed Karapetian’s Strong Armenia alliance ahead of the disputed parliamentary elections held on June 7.

Armenia’s Investigative Committee claimed that Chalabian traveled to a foreign country, presumably Russia, in May and persuaded government officials there to help Strong Armenia garner more votes in the elections. It said the officials not identified by it pledged to have wealthy businesspeople order their Armenian employees travel to Armenia to vote for Karapetian’s bloc.

The law-enforcement agency charged Chalabian with attempting to obstruct Armenians’ “exercise of electoral rights” and petitioned a court in Yerevan to remand him in pre-trial custody. The court approved the two-month arrest warrant. The oppositionist rejected the accusation as “completely false,” according to his lawyer, Varazdat Harutiunian.

The Investigative Committee cited a purported audio of Chalabian’s secretly recorded conversation with two other persons during which they discussed in Russian the participation of Armenian citizens living in Russia in the June 7 elections. It was posted on a pro-government social media account the day before the vote.

Daniel Ioannisian, a Western-funded civic activist cooperating with the Armenian government, appealed to the committee at the time to launch a criminal investigation into the audio. Ioannisian suggested on Wednesday that Chalabian was arrested on the basis of his appeal.

Chalabian insisted on June 7 that the recording was doctored to discredit him. He said his only contact with Russian officials was an “ordinary” meeting in January with diplomats from Russia’s embassy in Yerevan.

“They asked for a meeting, saying: ‘We want to get to know you.’ We met, we talked, we said goodbye, and after that I never saw those people again,” he said.

The vocal critic of Pashinian was arrested at his Yerevan apartment right after it was searched by investigators early in the morning.

“This is clearly a political persecution,” Chalabian’s wife, Anahit Adamian, told journalists. “We all see what is happening in the opposition camp.”

Hundreds of opposition members and supporters were arrested during the election campaign and even on election day on mostly vote-buying charges denied by Strong Armenia and other opposition groups. The crackdown continued after the elections marred by opposition allegations of serious fraud.

At least four opposition election candidates were arrested last week amid Pashinian’s fresh pledges to jail Karapetian and other top opposition leaders. Critics say the continuing arrests are aimed at discouraging the opposition from challenging the official election results in the streets.

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