The 30-year-old mayor, Arush Arushanian, is one of the four heads of major communities of Syunik province who were arrested shortly after the June 2021 parliamentary elections on various charges rejected by them as politically motivated.
They all demanded Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation before joining the main opposition Hayastan alliance formed by former President Robert Kocharian in the run-up to the snap polls.
Arushanian stands accused of trying to buy votes. Law-enforcement authorities claim that he ordered the head of a village close to Goris to provide financial aid to local residents who will promise to vote for Hayastan.
Arushanian strongly denies that, saying that the poverty benefits approved by the local council were allocated on a regular basis and had nothing to do with the general elections.
The criminal case against him is based on incriminating testimony given by the village chief, Lusine Avetian. The latter reportedly withdrew her testimony during their trial that began in November.
A Syunik judge presiding over the trial refused to free Arushanian on bail. The Court of Appeals upheld the decision following an appeal lodged by his lawyers.
Two of the three other jailed Syunik community heads, who were elected to the Armenian parliament on the Hayastan ticket, were set free in December after the Constitutional Court deemed their arrest illegal.
The third community chief, Manvel Paramazian, was freed in October only to be arrested again on Monday after the Court of Appeals overturned a Syunik court’s decision to grant him bail. Incidentally, the judge who made that decision was also arrested on Monday on charges which he rejects as government retribution.
During a hearing on Tuesday, Rubik Mkhitarian, a Court of Appeals judge, assured defense lawyers that the controversial arrest of his colleague will not influence his decision on whether or not Arushanian should remain in detention.
The hearing took place as dozens of opposition activists and lawyers critical of the Armenian government gathered outside the court building in Yerevan in a show of solidarity with Arushanian. They insisted that he is a political prisoner. The government and prosecutors deny any political motives.
A bloc led by Arushanian defeated Pashinian’s Civil Contract party by a wide margin in a municipal election held on October 17 three months after the Goris mayor’s arrest.
