After exiting the Yerevan court of general jurisdiction today, leader of Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan told reporters nobody in history has ever been arrested for electoral bribe in history.

“The court will announce its decision on Sunday. To this day, nobody has submitted a petition to arrest or detain the president of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia and the leader of the second opposition party in the country. I would just like to say that if I am to blame for the current state of the country what with the coronavirus situation, poverty and economic decline, I am ready to go and serve my punishment, but again, I’m surprised by all this. Nobody in history has ever been arrested for electoral bribe,” he said.

When a journalist asked Tsarukyan why he wasn’t speaking out about political persecution when he was part of the government and when there were criminal cases against people affiliated to him, Tsarukyan said he had doubts, but didn’t have the right to express himself.

Gagik Tsarukyan is charged with giving electoral bribes, but doesn’t accept the charge and says the case against him is phony.

On June 16, the National Assembly of Armenia approved the two petitions of Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan to strip Gagik Tsarukyan of his parliamentary immunity and deprive him of his liberty.