Five members of the Strong Armenia alliance’s Artashat office are currently under house arrest, lawyer Yura Ivanyan said, Sputnik Armenia reports.
The Anti-Corruption Committee had requested detention as a preventive measure for 12 people. Earlier, on April 16, the committee reported the detention of 14 representatives of the party’s Artashat office.
“A total of five people are under house arrest; the court partially granted the Anti-Corruption Committee’s motion. Regarding two people, the court rejected applying a preventive measure due to the absence of reasonable suspicion. We are dealing with a situation where people are hired and are supposed to distribute booklets, carry out campaigning and then be paid for it, but law enforcement describes this as disguised bribery,” Ivanyan said.
The Anti-Corruption Committee said operational-search measures had produced factual data showing that a group of people acting on behalf of the Strong Armenia party had provided voter bribes, including in disguised form, to several citizens on condition that they vote for the political force in Armenia’s National Assembly elections scheduled for June 7, 2026. A video with corresponding audio recordings was also attached.
The committee noted that it was additionally established that a person acting on behalf of the Strong Armenia party, in circumstances where regular National Assembly elections had been called by a relevant decree of the Armenian president, violated the ban on charity during elections. In addition, information was received that citizens were materially incentivized to participate in rallies.
A criminal proceeding was initiated under relevant articles of Armenia’s Criminal Code in connection with the case, a number of searches were conducted, and five people were detained as a result.
On April 16, the Anti-Corruption Committee not only detained members of the Strong Armenia party’s Artashat office but also released an audio recording in which, presumably, representatives of the force and people registered as employees in NGOs cooperating with them discussed distributing voter bribes to voters in the Artashat community.
On April 14, two members of the Strong Armenia party, Gohar Ghumashyan and Verzhine Stepanyan, were detained. The next day, the Anti-Corruption Court placed them under administrative supervision.
