Vardan Ghukasyan, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, has been charged with bribery<\/p>\n
An Armenian court has ordered the pre-trial detention of a prominent critic of pro-Western Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
\nVardan Ghukasyan, the mayor of Gyumri, who was elected in April from the Communist Party of Armenia, was arrested on Monday and placed under a two-month detention order the following day. His detention sparked street demonstrations in Gyumri, Armenia\u2019s second-largest city, where protesters demanding his release clashed with police.
\nInvestigators claim Ghukasyan extorted a $10,000 bribe from a local businessman in exchange for overlooking irregularities in the construction of his property.
\nPrime Minister Pashinyan had previously threatened to throw people like Ghukasyan \u201cout of politics,\u201d claiming the mayor was undermining Armenian sovereignty with his statements. Critics accuse Pashinyan of using law enforcement to suppress dissent and consolidate power amid declining popularity.
\nIn June, Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan was detained on charges of corruption and plotting to overthrow the government, while his energy holdings were targeted for nationalization. Earlier in October, Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan of the Armenian Apostolic Church was sentenced to two years in prison for alleged support of a coup attempt.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Armenian bishop and clerics detained amid feud with government<\/p>\n
Pashinyan\u2019s feud with the influential church dates back to 2020, when Catholicos Garegin II, the spiritual head of the denomination, urged him to step down after Armenia ceded land to Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vardan Ghukasyan, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, has been charged with bribery An Armenian court has ordered the pre-trial detention of a prominent critic of pro-Western Prime…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t