ANC: Arsen Gevorkyan is another victim of the campaign unleashed by Nikol Pashinyan`s "regime" against democratic and civil liberties in Armenia.

ArmInfo. Arsen Gevorgyan, who headed the Strong Armenia party list in the Stepanavan City Council elections, has become another victim of the campaign unleashed by Nikol Pashinyan's "regime" against democratic and civil liberties. This was stated in a statement by the Armenian National Congress (ANC), led by the first president of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

"Arsen Gevorgyan, who headed the Strong Armenia party list in the Stepanavan City Council elections on October 25, died in the Nubarashen Penitentiary. He was arrested four days before the elections. The Armenian National Congress expresses its deepest condolences to the family, relatives, and members of Arsen Gevorgyan's party." "Arsen Gevorgyan has become yet another victim of the campaign unleashed by Nikol Pashinyan's regime against democratic and civil liberties," the ANC stated.

It further notes that the Armenian National Congress strongly condemns the terrorist model of "democracy" established by Nikol Pashinyan's government, under which the main opposition forces are subjected to harassment and detention before elections, administrative pressure and violations of the law during the election campaign and voting, and further repression after the elections.

"When the government uses law enforcement agencies to suppress political rivals, it also restricts citizens' right to free choice. With his policies, Nikol Pashinyan is gradually leading Armenia toward dictatorship. This should also be a clear signal to our people and society. Political persecution and attacks on democratic freedoms must stop immediately, and all those responsible for anti-democratic and illegal actions must be punished. Protecting the right of every persecuted political force to freedom of action and participation in elections is the responsibility of all of us," the ANC added.

Earlier, the party's head of communications and public relations, Nelly Avetisyan, confirmed to ArmInfo that Arsen Gevorkyan died in pretrial detention. According to Armenian media reports, he suffered a heart attack. The penitentiary reported that Gevorkyan became ill at 7:55 a.m., and doctors pronounced him dead at 8:30 a.m. The authorities assured that Gevorkyan had not previously complained of health problems.

As a reminder, on October 21, the Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia opened a criminal case against Arsen Gevorkyan, who headed the Strong Armenia party's proportional list in the Stepanavan Municipal Council elections, and 13 other individuals. It was later reported that the court ordered Gevorkyan arrested for two months. Five others were placed under two-month arrest or house arrest. It is noteworthy that the day before these events, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan offered to write to him personally to those citizens and candidates for community heads in the local government elections who were under pressure from the ruling Civil Contract party. However, by the evening of that same day, he himself began threatening representatives of the opposition. Let us note that all this happened before the local government elections in Stepanavan.