Armenia seeks to strip Tsarukyan of immunity as post-election arrests and dism

Armenian authorities have asked the Central Election Commission (CEC) to lift the parliamentary immunity of tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan, who leads the opposition Prosperous Armenia party. Separately, the authorities have continued their investigations into alleged vote-buying, including by dismissing state servants associated with opposition figures.

Before prosecutors can initiate criminal proceedings against Tsarukyan, who was placed under investigation for alleged large-scale tax evasion just two days after the 7 June parliamentary elections, the CEC must lift his parliamentary immunity.

Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia party narrowly missed the 4% threshold to enter parliament following a controversial decision by the CEC.

The announcement of the investigation came after Tsarukyan had attempted to leave Armenia through Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport shortly after the elections, but was prevented from doing so.

Later, Russian–Armenian tycoon Samavel Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia’s leading candidate Narek Karapetyan and Armenia Alliance leader and former President Robert Kocharyan were similarly barred from leaving the country following the elections. However, the legal justifications of such preventions remain unclear.

Ahead of the elections, Armenian authorities launched dozens of criminal cases alleging vote-buying by the main opposition groups. New cases have continued to emerge after the vote, with investigators publishing wiretapped recordings as evidence to support the allegations.

On Thursday, an unspecified number of people were detained in connection with an alleged vote-buying scheme involving a Prosperous Armenia representative.

Separately, according to RFE/RL, the Anti-Corruption Committee searched the home and two vehicles of Karen Simonyan, a parliamentary candidate from the Armenia Alliance. Authorities said the searches were part of a criminal investigation into alleged vote-buying and vote-selling involving supporters of the alliance.

Meanwhile, prominent Strong Armenia member Artur Avanesyan has been placed under house arrest and banned from leaving the country after prosecutors failed to secure an extension of his pre-trial detention. He was detained at the end of April on suspicion of electoral bribery.

Opposition figure says sister dismissed from state job

Edgar Ghazaryan, a parliamentary candidate from Strong Armenia, accused the authorities of targeting his family by dismissing his sister, Lilit Ghazaryan, from the state-run Drug Expertise Centre, where she had worked for more than 30 years.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Edgar Ghazaryan described the move as ‘political repression against our family’.

According to him, the day after the election, his sister ‘was instructed’ by the Health Ministry to resign, and after refusing to do so ‘she was unlawfully dismissed’.

‘My sister has worked at the centre for more than 30 years, including the last 22 as deputy director. She is one of Armenia’s leading specialists in pharmaceutical regulation’, Edgar Ghazaryan wrote.

He argued that the ‘only reason’ for Lilit Ghazaryan’s dismissal was that she is his sister, ‘despite the fact that she has remained politically restrained and has made no public or political statements’.

In turn, Lilit Ghazaryan told RFE/RL that after she refused to submit a resignation letter, management instead abolished one of the centre’s two deputy director positions, effectively dismissing her.

‘The elimination of that position had no factual basis and no legal basis’, she said.

She also claimed that the decision originated with Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan rather than Drug Expertise Centre Director Arayik Baghryan, who she said merely carried out the order.

Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday, Avanesyan rejected the allegations, insisting that the decision had no political motivation and dismissing the accusations as ‘manipulations’. She suggested that if the decision had indeed been politically motivated by Ghazaryan’s brother’s opposition activities, such action would have been taken years earlier.

It is not the first time that figures linked to the opposition or simply holding opposition-minded views working for the government have alleged politically-motivated retribution since the election.

Earlier in June, Gohar Vardanyan, a local civil official in the border village of Kirants, said she was pressured to submit a resignation letter after publishing a Facebook post disputing claims that the strong showing of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party in the village actually reflected real local support.