Yerevan police detain over 100 supporters of opposition party leader demanding PM Pashinyan's resignation
YEREVAN. June 16 (Interfax) - Yerevan police have detained 103 people taking part in a rally outside the Armenian parliament headquarters in support of Prosperous Armenia opposition party leader Gagik Tsarukyan.
"A total of 103 people have been detained," Armenia's police told Interfax on Tuesday.
They include Greco-Roman wrestler Roman Amonyan, a two-time European champion and an Olympic Games medalist.
The Armenian parliament building has been sealed off by police, hardware has been sent to the site. An ever-growing number of Tsarukyan's supporters are still arriving at the parliament building. Police are warning them of the existence of a ban on mass assemblies during the coronavirus-related state of emergency.
Tsarukyan's supporters are also blocking roads leading to Yerevan and streets in the country's capital, an Interfax correspondent reported.
Trucks, buses, and taxis are blocking a road connecting Yerevan and the town of Abovyan, near which Tsarukyan lives. Traffic has also been paralyzed on a busy highway in Yerevan.
According to earlier reports, Armenian Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan had asked the country's parliament to open a new criminal investigation against Tsarukyan and strip him of immunity from criminal prosecution as an MP. Earlier this month, Tsarukyan demanded that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government resign.
Davtyan's request is still being considered by parliamentarians.
Armenia's National Security Service, for its part, said that a criminal case had been opened against Tsarukyan over illegal gambling business, which caused the state to lose more than 29 billion dram (more than $60 million). Apart from that, the service said that it had exposed multiple instance of bribery within the Prosperous Armenia party during the 2017 parliamentary election.
The press service of the Prosecutor General's Office, in turn, said that ahead of the April 2, 2017 parliamentary election, Tsarukyan set up and headed an organized group with the aim of bribing voters in return for their promise to vote for his party in the election. According to the report, 171.94 million dram (more than $355,200) were given in bribes for 17,194 ballot papers in Armenia's Gegharkunik region alone.
Tsarukyan himself has dismissed this criminal case as political persecution.