Oppositionist: No repression will help Nikol Pashinyan retain power  on June 7th

ArmInfo.  No repression will help Nikol Pashinyan retain power in the upcoming June 7 elections.  Aregnaz Manukyan, a member of the "Mother Armenia" party, told reporters  outside the courthouse where a motion to detain party leader Andranik Tevanyan as a preventative measure is being reviewed.

According to her, the absurd accusations of espionage and treason  against Tevanyan are simply ridiculous.  Tevanyan, Manukyan noted, is  a patriot of his country, and the fabricated trial itself is nothing  more than the convulsions of a "frightened mastermind" who is fully  aware of the inevitability of his political end. 

She recalled the remarks of current Armenian Prime Minister Nikol  Pashinyan about his readiness to face the firing squad if it were the  will of the people, but he brazenly lied once again. "The Armenian  people have taken to the streets countless times demanding his  resignation, but Pashinyan is clinging to his seat, knowing that the  alternative is prison For him, remaining in office is the only way to  preserve his freedom," the politician stated.

She noted that immediately after the Central Election Commission gave  the go-ahead to initiate criminal proceedings, Tevanyan voluntarily  arrived at the Investigative Committee building, where he waited for  hours because no one was inside. However, masked men wearing red  berets soon arrived at the building, having previously conducted  searches of Tevanyan's headquarters and apartment. As Manukyan noted,  Tevanyan stood a few steps away and had no intention of running, but  the "chief magnifier" needed a show with handcuffs to satisfy his own  insecurities. Manukyan assured that very soon, in accordance with a  fair court decision, these same handcuffs will be placed on Nikol  Pashinyan himself.

The politician noted that this legal chaos proves the superiority of  the united opposition, which, according to her, is securing  significantly more votes than the ruling Civil Contract party. This  is precisely why the authorities are seeking to disrupt the elections  and place the opposition on an unequal footing, so that the  opposition wastes time in court instead of campaigning.

Recall, The day before, the Central Election Commission  granted two  petitions from the Prosecutor General's Office to initiate criminal  proceedings against Andranik Tevanyan and deprive him of his liberty.   A candidate for the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia has  immunity during the pre-election period. Immediately following the  CEC's decision, the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia opened a  criminal case against the politician under Part 1 of Article 418 of  the Criminal Code (high treason).  According to the investigation,  Andranik Tevanyan, while a member of the National Assembly of the  Republic of Armenia, collaborated with the director of the Russia  Caucasus geopolitical center, who was a representative of foreign  intelligence services. On the latter's instructions, Tevanyan engaged  in espionage and transmitted information containing state secrets.  This alleged incident concerns a closed session of the National  Assembly in April 2024, at which issues of border delimitation and  demarcation between Armenia and Azerbaijan were discussed. According  to the case materials, Tevanyan passed on information about the  progress and results of a closed session, receiving in exchange a  particularly large sum of $622,000.  Tevanyan himself denies the  charge, stating that he physically could not have passed on data from  closed parliamentary hearings in 2024, since he resigned his  parliamentary mandate in 2023 to participate in the elections to the  Yerevan Council of Elders.