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Political activist Edgar Ghazaryan on Monday dismissed trumped-up charges against opposition politician Armen Ashotyan and accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of ordering his arrest.

Ashotyan, deputy chair of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), has been placed in pre-trial detention since 16 June on charges of abuse of power and money laundering strongly denied by him as politically motivated.

Ghazaryan and other supporters of Ashotyan gathered outside the Anti-Corruption Court in Yerevan to express solidarity with him amid a hearing in his case.

“We have launched a struggle against a whole chain of illegalities,” Ghazaryan told reporters.

“The judge, the prosecutor or the investigator play a secondary role, because the decision about Armen Ashotyan was made by one person – the homeland thief. It's the same person who made the decisions of October 6 and November 9," he noted, referring to Pashinyan.

The activist claimed the arrests of Ashotyan and other oppositionists were aimed at silencing them and stopping their fight against the Armenian government's "destructive" policies.