Anahit Khalatian, the 70-year-old candidate of the opposition Our City bloc, her 75-year-old friend Kima Hayrapetian and a third woman, who is said to be in her 90s, were snatched from a car and taken to a detention center in Yerevan on suspicion of promising or receiving vote bribes. The latter was freed without charge on Monday while Khalatian and Hayrapetian were indicted by the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC).
Khalatian was charged with offering the other women 15,000 drams ($38) in return for voting for Our City that challenged the ruling Civil Contract party along with several other opposition groups. She denies the accusation. The court ordered her immediate release from custody, rejecting the ACC’s demand to place her under house arrest.
Hayrapetian was set free later in the day. Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, she denied accepting the alleged vote bribe.
According to Khalatian’s lawyer, Arsen Babayan, the accusations are based on a wiretapped conversation between the two women. Babayan said the 15,000 drams discussed by them were about a “family matter,” not the election.
The lawyer also stood by his allegations that ACC officers hit his client as well as the 90-year-old woman and threatened them with lengthy prison sentences during interrogations. The ACC denied the allegations on Tuesday.
The Our City leader, Martun Grigorian, held a news conference on Sunday afternoon to condemn the women’s arrests. Eight other opposition activists, including his father and son, were arrested on Thursday. They all were freed after being charged with vote buying.