Epress.am News from Armenia
Jirair Sefilyan, one of the leaders of New Armenia opposition alliance and Founding Parliament movement, was called into questioning in the Investigative Committee of Armenia on January 12, where he was threatened with arrest, local Haykakan Zhamanak daily reports.
Varuzhan Avetisyan, a spokesperson for Founding Parliament, told the paper that investigator Amram Makinyan threatened Sefilyan, saying: “Stop your activities, otherwise you'll be jailed.”
The law enforcement official, as stated by Avetisyan, did not elaborate on the reasons for Sefilyan's arrest, claiming only that the oppositionist had no right to leave the city when campaigning against last year's constitutional amendments since he had been arrested in spring, 2015 – and subsequently released on his own recognizance – for allegedly planning anti-government protests in Yerevan on April 24, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
The members of the opposition movement, however, are convinced the real reason behind the threat is Founding Parliament's recent statement calling on Armenians to “take up arms in self-defense, if necessary.”
“[State officials] are so ignorant that they did not even understand this statement. Besides, it seems that they are not aware that, according to the law, a pledge to not be absent from one's principal place of residence does not prevent the exercise of their political rights,” Avetisyan noted.