Epress.am News from Armenia
Arsen Avagyan (pictured), a former MP with the Prosperous Armenia Party, is threatening his former wife, Lusine Avagyan, who has had to flee the country with their child, Ani Torosyan, a lawyer for Avagyan, reported to Armenia's Helsinki Association for Human Rights.
According to Torosyan, the former parliamentarian repeatedly subjected Avagyan to physical abuse while they were married, and when she finally divorced him, he threatened to take her child away and make sure that the woman ended up in jail.
After filing a number of appeal letters with various state institutions, the lawyer discovered that Arsen Avagyan had alienated a significant part of the former spouses' joint property, and when the former wife began to demand that she be reinstated as the owner of said property, the ex-MP started to threaten the woman.
“When Lusine turned to a lawyer, Arsen Avagyan began to pursue her; he sent her Viber messages, phoned her to say that he would cut off her nose and ears, would hurt her and make sure that she ended up in jail. The threats were constant; Lusine was even scared to go to the police. Being her lawyer, I offered to try to tame him and sent a letter to Arsen Avagyan, asking him to refrain from such behaviour. He clamed down for a short period, but then things got even worse: Lusine's former mother-in-law, Nina Gabuni, filed a police report, claiming that my client had stolen her gold jewellery, forcing her to flee the country,” the lawyer told Helsinki Association.
Armenian law-enforcement authorities have opened a criminal case against Lusine Avagyan and declared the woman wanted, Torosyan said, adding that Avagyan is too scared to return to Armenia as she insists that she is being wrongly accused of a crime she did not commit.