Avetik Chalabyan, coordinator of the Hayakve movement and a public and political figure, has been detained on charges related to obstructing voters’ electoral rights. He told investigators at the Investigative Committee that the accusation is false, his lawyer Varazdat Harutyunyan said outside the committee’s headquarters, according to Factor.am .

According to the attorney, Chalabyan was transferred from the Investigative Committee to court, where a motion seeking his pretrial detention is expected to be examined. He added that it was not yet known which judge had been assigned the case.

Varazdat Harutyunyan declined to disclose details of the accusation, citing restrictions related to the confidentiality of the pretrial investigation. At the same time, he expressed hope that the Investigative Committee would publish a detailed statement on the case, as it has done in similar recent cases.

The lawyer also said that a search of Chalabyan’s apartment had been conducted earlier in the morning, before his detention.

According to him, investigators were presumably searching for voter lists, but no such materials were found during the search.

His wife, Anahit Adamyan, stated that law enforcement officers did not discover any illegal items during the search but confiscated Chalabyan’s mobile phone, Sputnik Armenia reported.

According to Adamyan, seven to eight police and investigative officers arrived at their apartment at around 7:10 a.m., while family members, including the children, were still asleep.

“They arrived with documents, meaning they came prepared in advance to detain him. This is clearly political persecution,” she said.

Chalabyan’s wife described the developments as political retaliation and linked them to ongoing processes within the opposition camp.

“This is clearly political persecution. We all see what is happening now in the opposition field,” she stated.

In her view, the timing of the detention was not accidental and was connected to expected proceedings before the Constitutional Court.

Anahit Adamyan said she believes her husband was intentionally detained so that he would remain isolated and unable to participate in public processes during the Constitutional Court’s consideration of opposition complaints regarding the results of the parliamentary elections.

In April, the Strong Armenia Party and the Hayakve movement signed a memorandum of cooperation aimed at uniting efforts to remove the current administration and form a new national government through the June 7 elections.