On 21 June, a first instance court in Yerevan ruled against a pre-trial detention of Gagik Tsarukyan, the leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party, reported the Armenian Radio Free Europe.
The Armenian National Security Service (NSS) filed a motion with the Yerevan Court of First Instance to rule for the arrest of Gagik Tsarukyan as a pretrial measure, but the court denied this motion. The court of first instance found that during the respective criminal proceedings, Gagik Tsarukyan's improper conduct could be prevented by the use of another pretrial measure unrelated to his arrest.
“I am happy that the court proved strong enough to stay away from political processes,” said one of Tsarukyan’s lawyers, Yerem Sargsyan. He suggested that during the hearings the court found his and his colleagues’ arguments against Tsarukyan’s arrest convincing.
Armenian prosecutors condemned the court’s refusal to sanction Tsarukyan’s pre-trial arrest as “baseless and illegal” and said they would appeal against the ruling. A spokesperson for Armenia’s Prosecutor-General Artur Davtyan said that the court “ignored” legitimate justifications of the arrest presented by the investigators. The official, Gor Abrahamyan, said that Tsarukyan could obstruct the investigation and exert “illegal influence” on other suspects in the case if he is not placed under arrest.
Following the ruling, the NSS released a statement stating that it “expects to receive public assistance“ in Tsarukyan’s case and urged all Armenian citizens to immediately notify the body conducting the proceedings if they have any information about his case.
On 14 June, the Prosperous Armenia (BHK) opposition leader Gagik Tsarukyan was summoned to the National Security Service (NSS) and questioned for more than eight hours following the search. After the questioning the NSS opened 3 charges against Tsarukyan (Caucasus Watch reported). The Armenian parliament stripped Tsarukyan of his parliamentary immunities two days later (Caucasus watch reported).
