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A rapid response group of the Armenian Human Rights Defender's (Ombudsman) Office headed to the Arabkir Police Department after lawyer Ruben Melikyan and several other individuals protesting outside the parliament building were detained.

The group will hold private meetings with the detained citizens to find out the grounds for their apprehension and to examine the status of theirs rights, as well as the police report on the incident, the office said in a statement.

Ruben Melikyan, along with Armenia’s first Human Rights Defender Larisa Alaverdyan, lawyer Robert Hayrapetyan and several others were holding separate protest actions in front of the National Assembly demanding the authorities to lift the ban on peaceful assemblies in the country which remains in place amid the extended state of emergency.

They were detained for failing to comply with the police demand to end the action “prohibited during the state of emergency”.

Speaking to reporters earlier on Friday, Alaverdyan decried the government’s decision to extend the ban as not only a violation of human rights but also the Constitution and conventions.

"During the days of the pandemic, the government has found itself in a helpless state. I raise my voice against such absurd restrictions in a state of emergency,” she said, adding that the ban on rallies is also not in the interests of the state and authorities.