The arrests followed a search conducted by the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) at the opposition alliance’s office in Spitak, a town 95 kilometers north of Yerevan. The ACC said the head of the office donated money to one local resident and “together with other individuals” threatened another voter with violence.
The law-enforcement agency released the audio of secretly recorded conversations among the suspects not identified by it. They can be heard discussing financial issues and the need to have a “tough talk” with another person in case of an opposition victory in the June 7 elections. But they say nothing about vote bribes.
Hayastan rejected the accusations as politically motivated. It said the arrests are aimed at disrupting the work of its campaign officers and creating an “atmosphere of fear” ahead of the crucial elections.
“They cannot intimidate us with searches and arrests,” said Kocharian’s bloc widely regarded as one of the ruling Civil Contract party’s three main opposition challengers.
“These actions prove once again that the government lacks public support and self-confidence and resorts to such steps to ensure its own survival,” it added in a statement.
The arrests marked the first election-related criminal case against Hayastan. Law-enforcement authorities have opened at least 11 such cases against another opposition heavyweight, the Strong Armenia alliance of billionaire Samvel Karapetian. Several dozen of its members or supporters have been arrested in recent weeks on similar charges also denied by it.
“We, as the leading force, don’t need to give vote bribes,” Karapetian insisted last week. “Amid ongoing repressions in Armenia, friendly conversations among people are now considered a crime.”
He claimed that the crackdown highlights Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s pre-election “fears and convulsions.”
Pashinian’s party itself is accused by various opposition groups of trying to buy votes with public money as well as through a private charity run by the premier’s wife, Anna Hakobian. None of its members or supporters have been prosecuted on corresponding charges.
Earlier this week, the ACC refused to indict Tavros Sapeyan, a controversial pro-government mayor who has provided material aid to impoverished residents of his town of Talin. It denied any connection between the handouts and the upcoming polls. A coalition of Armenian civic groups that demanded criminal proceedings against Sapeyan continued to insist that he violated a legal ban on election-related benevolence.