"Strong Armenia": Pashinyan’s government bears responsibility for yet another opposition figure’s death in custody

ArmInfo. The Armenian authorities are responsible for yet another death of an opposition figure in prison. The Strong Armenia party made this statement after it was confirmed that Arsen Gevorgyan, the political force’s candidate for head of the Stepanavan community, had died in custody.

The party recalled that Gevorgyan was arrested ahead of the elections to the local self-government bodies (LSG) in Stepanavan, after which the authorities launched a campaign to discredit him, bringing unfounded charges. “Responsibility for yet another death of an opposition figure in prison lies with the person on whose orders hundreds of people are subjected to unfounded defamation and arrests. The Strong Armenia party expresses its deepest condolences to the family of Arsen Gevorgyan,” the political force said in a statement on Facebook.

Earlier, the party’s head of communications and public relations, Nelly Avetisyan, confirmed to ArmInfo that Arsen Gevorgyan had died in a detention center.  According to reports in the Armenian media, he suffered a heart attack.

It should be recalled that on October 21, Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee opened a criminal case against Arsen Gevorgyan, who headed the proportional list of the Strong Armenia party in the elections to the Stepanavan municipal council, and 13 other individuals. It later became known that, by court decision, Gevorgyan was remanded in custody for two months. Five other people were placed under two-month detention or house arrest.

It is noteworthy that one day before these events, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan suggested that citizens and candidates for community heads in the local self-government body (LSG) elections who were facing pressure from the ruling Civil Contract party write to him personally. But by that evening, he himself had begun threatening representatives of opposition forces. It should be noted that all this took place ahead of the local self-government elections in Stepanavan.