YEREVAN. – Supporters of Arsen Babayan, former Deputy Chief of Staff of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, are holding a rally Thursday at the yard of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan.

The decision on Babayan’s preventive measure will be announced shortly.

The Yerevan Court of First Instance on Wednesday considered the petition against the arrest of Arsen Babayan, as a precautionary measure, as well as the complaint filed by his lawyers against the decision to arrest Babayan.

Arsen Babayan was arrested Monday on suspicion of committing a crime under Article 314 (1) of the Criminal Code (committing official fraud). The next day, the Special Investigation Service (SIS) charged Babayan with Article 38-300 (aiding the usurpation of power) and Article 314 (1) (committing official fraud) of the Criminal Code, pursuant to which, in 2018, as Acting Deputy Chief of Staff of the NA, he had assisted in assuming the powers of the Constitutional Court by a group of officials, as well as had committed official fraud.

According to the indictment, Arsen Babayan distorted Constitutional Court then president Gagik Harutyunyan's petition for resignation to actually entering the NA on March 5, 2018, marking the date of entry as March 2, 2018. In this way, Babayan had created false grounds for publication of the statement—signed on March 2, 2018—of the then NA President Ara Babloyan on the resignation of the then Constitutional Court president Gagik Harutyunyan, and which in turn served as the basis for Harutyunyan’s termination of office, and later for the process of nominating and appointing Hrayr Tovmasyan to that vacant post.