November 14, 2020
Artur Vanetsyan
Armenia’s former head of that National Security Service Artur Vanetsyan was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of plotting the assassination of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, his lawyer announced on Facebook.
Vanetsyan, who leads the newly-formed Homeland Party, allegedly was part of large plot revealed by the NSS on Saturday, which involved other opposition figures.
“Today Artur Vanetsyan was invited to the Investigative Department of the National Security Service and detained. The authorities charged him based on false suspicions of usurping power and preparing the murder of Nikol Pashinyan,” Vanetsyan’s lawyer Lusine Sahakyan wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
Vanetsyan was part of the group of 10 opposition leaders who were detained late Tuesday, early Wednesday for disorderly conduct and violating Armenia’s martial law. Among the arrested were Armenian Revolutionary Federation Supreme Council of Armenia chairman Ishkhan Saghatelyan, Yerkir Media television political director Gegham and ARF Supreme Council member Artsvik Minasyan. The latter three were released when the presiding judge at the arraignment threw out their cases.