Tigran Arakelyan Accused of Extortion, Under House Arrest

Former opposition activist Tigran Arakelyan was arrested two days ago to appear in court as part of the investigation conducted by the Yerevan City Investigative Department of the RA Investigative Committee into serious crimes. This was reported by the spokesperson for the Investigative Committee, Gor Abrahamyan.

He faces public criminal prosecution under the second part of Article 258 of the RA Criminal Code regarding extortion carried out by a group of individuals in preliminary agreement using their official authority or the influence derived from their official capacities, and under the second part of Article 46-490 (threats or public disclosure of information concerning a judge, prosecutor, investigator, head of an investigative body, investigation body, lawyer, representative, expert, or their property destruction, damage, or violence against them).

A motion has been submitted to the court to select detention as a preventive measure. The court applied an alternative preventive measure of house arrest.

In response to Arakelyan's claims that the head of the Investigative Committee, Arghishti Kyaramyan, personally tortured him, Abrahamyan stated: “We do not comment on unfounded and baseless statements. There is a legal procedure for reporting a crime. If someone has been tortured, nothing prevents them from using that procedure.”

It is noteworthy that Tigran Arakelyan had released a video in which he claimed he was tortured, had water poured on him, and was struck with an electric shock by the head of the Investigative Committee, Arghishti Kyaramyan.