The Investigative Committee said that Spartak Ghukasian is prosecuted for “hooliganism committed using information or communication technologies.” The law-enforcement agency did not elaborate on the accusation. According to news reports, he shouted abuse in a courtroom earlier this week.
Ghukasian Jr. was already detained on September 11 on extortion charges denied by him. A Gyumri court moved him to house arrest against investigators’ wishes. His father denounced the criminal case as a government attempt to intimidate him and his family.
On October 1, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pledged to “throw out” Vartan Ghukasian from “the political and public arena.” Three weeks later, the outspoken mayor was arrested along with several other individuals on corruption charges rejected by him as politically motivated.
The arrest sparked angry protests in and outside Gyumri’s municipal administration building. Over 40 Ghukasian supporters were charged in the following days with participating in “mass disturbances.” Twenty-three of them remained under arrest as of Thursday. Anti-government protests in Armenia have rarely been followed by so many arrests and prosecutions in the past.
Later in October, law-enforcement authorities brought more criminal charges against Vartan Ghukasian stemming from his recent calls for Armenia to form a “union” with Russia while preserving its “independent statehood.” Pashinian decried the mayor’s “statement against the sovereignty of Armenia.”
Armenian opposition leaders say the crackdown on Ghukasian is part of Pashinian’s intensifying efforts to stifle dissent ahead of next year’s general elections. Dozens of other critics of the Armenian government, including another opposition mayor, three archbishops and a billionaire businessman, have also been arrested in recent months.