Davit Hambardzumyan, the Mayor of Masis and recently announced opposition candidate for prime minister, was arrested at Yerevan’s Zvartnots Airport on Monday evening shortly after arriving from abroad.
The arrest came just days after a court sentenced him to six years and three months in prison in a long-running case dating back to the 2018 Velvet Revolution.
According to eyewitnesses cited by RFE/RL, plainclothes officers approached Hambardzumyan as soon as he exited the plane. ‘They didn’t even let him leave the airport’, one passenger said, adding that law enforcement acted with what appeared to be prior coordination. Hambardzumyan was reportedly taken directly to the penitentiary system’s detention facility.
The former mayor’s conviction — handed down by Judge Zhoba Chichoyan — relates to allegations that he and his brother used a weapon against demonstrators heading to Yerevan’s Republic Square in April 2018. Hambardzumyan has denied the charges from the outset, claiming the case was fabricated to remove him from politics. His lawyer Tigran Atanesyan said no witnesses ever provided incriminating testimony and that the court ignored exculpatory evidence.
‘The entire proceeding was built on assumptions and political orders’, Atanesyan told reporters, adding that the defence will appeal the ruling. He said the case should have been dropped under the terms of a general amnesty but the court chose to revoke Hambardzumyan’s bail and order immediate detention instead.
Hambardzumyan, who has served as the mayor of Masis since 2015, was nominated in June as the opposition Republican Party’s candidate for prime minister in a symbolic no-confidence initiative against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government. The party, led by former President Serzh Sargsyan, called the verdict a ‘disgraceful display of deepening authoritarianism’.
‘By imprisoning an elected mayor and opposition candidate, the authorities are trying to obstruct the constitutional process of expressing no confidence in the prime minister’, the party’s executive body said in a statement. It described the verdict as ‘another manifestation of democratic backsliding and political persecution against opposition figures’.
The case against Hambardzumyan was first opened in 2018 amid the political turmoil of the Velvet Revolution, when he was accused of ‘armed hooliganism’ under the old criminal code. He was briefly detained that year but released on bail. For years, the case lingered in the courts with little movement until this month’s sudden conviction.
Hambardzumyan’s supporters see his arrest as part of a wider pattern of prosecutions targeting local leaders affiliated with the parliamentary opposition. Several current and former Republican Party mayors have faced investigations or trials since 2019.
Opposition figures argue that the government is tightening pressure ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections. ‘This case sends a clear message to all mayors who refuse to cooperate with the ruling party’, Republican Party MP Tigran Abrahamyan said.
Government officials have not commented publicly on the arrest, but ruling Civil Contract MPs have dismissed earlier claims of political persecution as ‘baseless’.
Hambardzumyan’s lawyer said his client remains defiant. ‘He knew this was coming’, Atanesyan said. ‘But he also knew he could not stay abroad while his community and his party were under pressure. He came back consciously, knowing he would be arrested’.
OC Media
