Khahramanyan: More than a dozen supporters of the Strong Armenia  party have been detained

ArmInfo.  Another representative of the Strong Armenia party and supporters of the political party were detained this morning, and searches are underway at the party's offices. Legal expert and member of the Strong Armenia party, Gohar Meloyan, reported this on her Facebook page.

According to her, law enforcement agencies are attempting to obstruct  lawyers' access to the detainees.  Currently, the lawyer reported,  they are being sent to the Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia. In  light of the situation, she called on the media and women's rights  organizations to assist. "Women are being detained once again. This  violates the principle of equal voting rights, and attempts to  interfere with the establishment of unequal conditions for our  political force. Furthermore, women's rights are being violated, and  an attempt is being made to deprive them of the right to engage in  political activity. However, with these steps, you further motivate  people to fight for a normal, legally-based country," the party  member emphasized.

In turn, party press secretary Marianna Kagramanyan told reporters  that, according to her information, 11 party members have already  been detained and taken to the Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia. 

According to her information, charges are currently being filed  against one of the detainees; further details, she said, will be  provided later by lawyers. "At this point, several lawyers have  managed to gain access to those detained. They face the same charges  related to charitable activities during the pre-election period.   This is the same pattern, an attempt to use criminal instruments to  intimidate members of our party and hinder our activities. It is also  an attempt by the country's authorities to create grounds for not  registering our party. Everything is perfectly clear, the goals are  obvious to us, but we have already said that we will not stop; this  will not intimidate us," the party's press secretary concluded.

As a reminder, on April 14, Gohar Gumashyan, a member of Samvel  Karapetyan's Strong Armenia party, and Verzhine Stepanyan, the  coordinator of the political party's Vayk office, were detained. The  Anti- Corruption Committee of Armenia reported that both women, who  have young children in their custody, are accused of charitable  activities during the pre-election period. The party called the  incident political persecution against its members. The prosecution  demanded that the women be placed under house arrest, but the  Armenian court placed them under administrative supervision.