Armenian MP set free after seven hours’ questioning at prosecutor’s office

Noyan Tapan news agency
8 Apr 04

YEREVAN

The secretary of the Justice faction in the Armenian parliament,
Viktor Dallakyan, who was summoned to the Armenian
Prosecutor-General’s Office in the morning of 8 April, left the office
only at about 1900 [1400 gmt] the same day.

Dallakyan himself told a Noyan Tapan correspondent that at 1000 [0500
gmt] the same day he arrived at the capital’s police department as a
victim. From there he was forcibly taken to the Prosecutor-General’s
Office and questioned between 1100 and 1800 [0600 and 1300 gmt] in
connection with a criminal case against the Justice bloc.

At 1700 [1200 gmt] the head of the OSCE Yerevan office, Vladimir
Pryakhin, and Armenian Prosecutor-General Agvan Ovsepyan visited
Dallakyan who was being questioned. Pryakhin hoped that Dallakyan
would spend the night at home. Ovsepyan replied that this depended on
the investigator.

Dallakyan will be summoned to the Prosecutor-General’s Office on 9
April [date of an opposition rally] as well. The investigator,
however, promises to finish questioning within an hour.

Dallakyan said that immediately after coming to the
Prosecutor-General’s Office he had telephoned Armenian Speaker Artur
Bagdasaryan and told him about the situation. The latter yesterday [7
April] called for a dialogue with the opposition.

While Dallakyan was being questioned, a group of voters from Lori
gathered outside the Prosecutor-General’s Office and demanded that
their deputy be released. According to some reports, Dallakyan could
have been arrested for 72 hours, if Pryakhin did not intervene.