Judge Armen Danielyan set to hear appeal against Avetik Chalabyan's arrest
An appeal against the arrest of Avetik Chalabyan, an Armenian public figure and opposition politician, has been assigned to judge Armen Danielyan, his lawyer Varazdat Harutyunyan told Panorama.am on Friday.
Chalabyan was arrested on May 12 for allegedly trying to pay students of the Armenian National Agrarian University to participate in ongoing anti-government protests in Yerevan. He has denied the charges as politically motivated.
The criminal case against the politician is based on a leaked audio of parts of conversations he and an Agrarian University lecturer had with the chairman of the university student council, Tornik Aliyan. The Investigative Committee claims he was offered 2 million drams in return for ensuring the presence of 2,000 students at opposition protests.
Chalabyan's legal team has called the arrest order “unfair and unjustified”. The defense lawyers have also appealed to Prosecutor General's Office over the case.