The Armenian Ombudsman has launched an investigation into the death in pretrial detention of the Strong Armenia candidate for mayor of Stepanavan.

ArmInfo. At the initiative of the Human Rights Defender (HRD), an investigation has been launched to examine issues related to the death of Arsen Gevorgyan, a candidate for the post of head of the Stepanavan community from the Strong Armenia party, who was registered on November 10 at the Nubarashen penitentiary institution.

According to the Office of the Human Rights Defender, clarifications will be sought from competent state bodies as part of this investigation. "The Human Rights Defender emphasizes that the state is responsible for ensuring the rights of persons deprived of their liberty or under its jurisdiction, including the protection of their life and health. The state is also obligated to ensure a comprehensive, complete, and objective investigation of criminal cases initiated in connection with deaths." "The Human Rights Defender of Armenia expresses its condolences to the family and friends of Arsen Gevorgyan," the Human Rights Defender's office concluded on its Facebook page.

On the morning of November 10, Nelly Avetisyan, the party's head of communications and public relations, confirmed to ArmInfo that Arsen Gevorgyan had died in pretrial detention. According to Armenian media reports, he suffered a heart attack.

As a reminder, on October 21, the Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia opened a criminal case against Arsen Gevorgyan, who headed the Strong Armenia party's proportional list in the Stepanavan Municipal Council elections, and 13 other individuals. It was later announced that the court ordered Gevorgyan's arrest for two months. Five more people were placed under two-month arrest or house arrest.

Notably, the day before these events, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan offered to write to him personally to citizens and candidates for community heads in the local government elections who were under pressure from the ruling Civil Contract party. However, by the evening of the same day, he himself began threatening opposition representatives. It is worth noting that all of this occurred before the local government elections in Stepanavan.