YEREVAN. – The US ambassador to Armenia has petitioned to the Prosecutor General and the Human Rights Defender of Armenia for the release of opposition Founding Parliament initiative member Garo Yegnukian, who is under arrest on charges of aiding the Sasna Tsrer armed group.

Yegnukian’s legal defender, Tigran Hayrapetyan, stated the aforementioned at a press conference on Wednesday.

To remind, Sasna Tsrer had taken over a police patrol regiment building in capital city Yerevan, taken hostages, but later surrendered, in July. 

Hayrapetyan added that the US ambassador has condemned the exercising of pre-trial detention for his client.

“The [court] hearing of the motion for releasing Garo Yegnukian on bail is scheduled for tomorrow [i.e. Thursday], to which the US Embassy [in capital city Yerevan] expressed a wish to attend,” noted the attorney.  

Garo Yegnukian is both an Armenian and a US citizen.