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Armine Adibekyan, an expert on Azerbaijan, on Wednesday denounced the violence against anti-government activist Samvel Vardanyan, who was detained after confronting MP Hakob Aslanyan of Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party on a bus in Yerevan on Monday.

The young man was arrested on charges of hooliganism after calling the deputy an “anti-Armenian scumbag” which sparked an altercation between them.

A group of masked men attacked and beat Vardanyan while he was being transported to a detention center in Yerevan. The violence took place when the police officers escorting him got out of the car “for personal matters”.

"The regime will continue to tighten the screws and ramp up repressions,” Adibekyan told reporters outside the Investigative Committee where the activist had been moved to from the detention facility.

She states Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's regime “is no longer able to contain the wave of rising discontent”.

"They have resorted to the Azerbaijani practice of not only detentions and trials, but also torture, which we have all witnessed," Adibekyan said, calling for accountability for the police officers who left Samvel Vardanyan alone in the car.