While taking an oath in parliament today, former Mayor of Meghri, who is released from custody, deputy of the opposition “Armenia” Faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Mkhitar Zakaryan called on releasing the heads of communities of Syunik Province.

Zakaryan read the text of the oath, after which he made the following call: “As logical continuation of the aforementioned text, I would like to make my first call — freedom to Arush Arushanyan, Manvel Paramazyan and our other friends who are illegally arrested,” Zakaryan said.

Mayor of Kajaran Manvel Paramazyan has been in custody since July 2021. He is charged with fraud, bribery and purchasing votes. Mayor of Goris Arush Arushanyan was detained in July and is charged with violating the secrecy of the ballot, obstructing exercise of electoral rights, abuse of official powers and complicity in illegal undertaking.

The heads of communities were detained after the snap parliamentary elections. The political opposition claims that the mayors are being politically persecuted for radically criticizing the authorities since the last two weeks of the war.