Azatutyun.am. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian sought to justify on Monday the arrest of a grief-stricken woman accused of attempting to “kidnap” his son which has sparked street protests and widespread condemnation in Armenia.
Gayane Hakobian, whose son Zhora Martirosian was killed during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, was detained last Wednesday after an argument with Ashot Pashinian. Citing the latter’s testimony, Armenia’s Investigative Committee said that Hakobian tricked the young man into getting in her car after she ran into him outside a court building in Yerevan.
Pashinian Jr. jumped out of the car shortly after Hakobian drove it towards the Yerablur Military Pantheon, according to the law-enforcement agency.
Hakobian strongly denies the accusations carrying between four and eight years in prison. Her lawyers say she simply wanted to talk to the 23-year-old.
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A Yerevan court approved her pre-trial detention on Saturday, triggering an angry demonstration attended by several dozen other parents of fallen soldiers and hundreds of their sympathizers. The parents announced afterwards a nonstop sit-in outside the prime minister’s office in the city’s central Republic Square.
The protest continued on Monday as Nikol Pashinian held a news conference amid tightened security in and around the building.
The prime minister made clear that he will not tell his son to withdraw the complaint lodged against Hakobian because they both believe that “in Armenia all issues must be solved in a legal way.”
“If there was no crime, let them close the case,” he told a news conference. “If there was a crime, let them finish the investigation and send the case to court and let the court make a decision.”
Pashinian did not comment on why Hakobian has to be kept under arrest pending the outcome of her trial.
He also declined to answer a question from the protesters which was put to him by a reporter. They wanted to know “what you felt when ordering the arrest.”
“Gayane is not guilty and the accusation brought against her is fabricated,” one of the protesting parents told journalists. “I consider her a political prisoner.”
“So his son cannot be told to sit in a car so that we just talk to him and they consider that kidnapping. But who will be held accountable for the deaths of my and Gayane’s sons and the 5,000 other boys?” said another.
Armenian opposition leaders and other critics of the government claim that Pashinian ordered Hakobian’s arrest in a bid to muzzle the families of deceased soldiers who have staged demonstrations over the past year to demand his prosecution on war-related charges. Several female opposition parliamentarians visited the woman in custody at the weekend.
Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian also condemned the woman’s arrest, saying that it is an “even greater disgrace” than a recent incident during which Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian spat at a heckler in Yerevan. Ter-Petrosian said that the Armenian authorities are only heightening political tensions in the country with their “impudent and short-sighted actions.”
“If things continue like this, a much sadder, if not explosive, prospect awaits our country,” he warned in a statement.
The Armenian Apostolic Church likewise expressed “deep concern” at Hakobian’s prosecution and called for her release from custody.