Davit Hambardzumian was found guilty of assaulting some participants of massive antigovernment rallies that brought Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to power in 2018. He denied the accusation throughout his six-year trial.
Hambardzumian was in Russia when a court in Yerevan handed down the ruling on October 23. He pledged to return to Armenia and continue challenging Pashinian’s government together with his HHK allies. His lawyer said that he will appeal against the verdict.
A short video posted online by a pro-HHK activist, Narek Malian, showed police officers arresting Hambardzumian right after he walked off a plane that landed at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport where dozens of his supporters gathered in a show of solidarity.
“I expected you,” the 39-year-old mayor, who has run Masis since 2016, could be heard telling the policemen.
“I hope that Davit Hambardzumian will be the last political prisoner of this regime,” Eduard Sharmazanov, a senior HHK figure, told reporters at Zvartnots.
Armenia - Masis Mayor Davit Hambardzumian.
The HHK claims that the Armenian authorities want to scuttle its declared plans to put forward a parliamentary motion of no confidence in Pashinian. The opposition party headed by former President Serzh Sarkisian proposed Hambardzumian’s candidacy for the post of prime minister in June. It has also linked his sentencing to the “ongoing wave of political repression” in the country.
On October 20, the opposition mayor of Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri, Vartan Ghukasian, was arrested on corruption charges strongly denied by him. The arrest sparked angry protests by Ghukasian’s supporters some of whom clashed with security forces sent from Yerevan.
Ghukasian became mayor as a result of the ruling Civil Contract party’s defeat in a municipal election held on March 30. Civil Contract was also defeated that day in a large rural community just west of Yerevan. The opposition mayor of that community, Volodya Grigorian, was shot dead on September 22 in what law-enforcement authorities described as a revenge killing.
Despite the ensuing arrest of the self-confessed shooter of Grigorian, his family and supporters maintain that the killing has not been solved. Opposition groups say it was made possible by what they see as Pashinian’s crackdown on dissent and impunity enjoyed by his loyalists.
Ghukasian’s arrest fueled more opposition claims that Pashinian wants to get rid of elected local government chiefs openly challenging him ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.