At least some of those wiretaps were posted on Armenian pro-government websites before the National Security Service (NSS) and other law-enforcement bodies raided on Tuesday entities accused by them of forcing or paying citizens to attend Friday’s rally. They arrested three people on corresponding charges based on the publicized audio of their phone conversations.
In one of those calls, one presumed resident of Karapetian’s hometown of Tashir can be heard offering to pay another for a meal on his way back to the small community 153 kilometers north of Yerevan. The latter is one of the three arrested suspects.
“He was arrested for having had dinner at the Gtnunik [fast food restaurant] on his way back home,” said the man’s lawyer, Tigran Hayrapetian.
Hayrapetian insisted that the accusation is based on a single purported piece of evidence which was obtained illegally.
“The NSS wiretapped phone calls en masse,” he said, adding that the surveillance was carried out before, during and after the rally attended by thousands of people.
The lawyer also claimed that the crackdown was ordered by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetian denied this when she spoke to Armenian Public Television on Tuesday.
Two days before the rally, Pashinian effectively warned employees of Armenia’s national electric utility owned by Karapetian against taking part in the protest organized by the tycoon’s family. He said company executives engaged in “political intrigues” will be fired as soon as the government takes over the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) operator later this monthPashinian also threatened to prosecute “those who force ENA workers to take part in rallies.” The ENA management strongly denied such coercion.
The demonstration went ahead as planned, with its several thousand participants marching to the NSS compound in the city center where Karabakh is held on charges of calling for a violent overthrow of the government. In a written appeal to the protesters, the 59-year-old tycoon urged Armenians to rally around a “fundamentally new force” which he will presumably create in a bid to remove Pashinian from power.
Armenian opposition leaders have welcomed Karapetian’s apparent plans to enter the political scene one year before the country’s next general elections. They say the arrests that followed Friday’s rally show that Pashinian is worried about Karapetian’s political ambitions.