Aregnaz Manukian, a former lawmaker who is currently a leading member of the opposition Mayr Hayastan party, was able to see and speak with the 13-year-old girl later in the day. The visit coincided with the latter’s birthday.
Manukian is prosecuted as part of a high treason case against the party chairman, Andranik Tevanian. He was arrested on May 22 two days after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced espionage charges against him while campaigning for the June 7 parliamentary elections.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee claims that Tevanian was recruited by a foreign, presumably Russian, intelligence service two years ago. According to it, he was paid $622,000 to supply state secrets, notably confidential details of a closed-door parliamentary hearing on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border demarcation held in April 2024.
Manukian, who was a parliament deputy at the time, is accused of sharing that information with Tevanian. She denies the accusation.
A Yerevan judge allowed investigators on July 9 to not only hold Manukian in pretrial detention but also prevent her from receiving family visits. The ban sparked a growing uproar from opposition groups, human rights activists and media. The country’s human rights ombudswoman, Anahit Manasian, has also expressed concern about it.
An Investigative Committee official finally allowed Manukian’s daughter to visit her just a couple of hours before dozens of allies and supporters of the 46-year-old oppositionist demonstrated outside the European Union office in Yerevan in a show of support for her and dozens of other jailed individuals regarded by them as political prisoners. They accused the EU of complicity in their continuing imprisonment on charges mostly stemming from the disputed elections.
The EU has supported Pashinian and avoided public criticism of his government’s human rights record throughout his eight-year rule. Armenian opposition leaders claim that Pashinian has thus been rewarded for effectively siding with the West in its deepening confrontation with Russia.