The National Assembly (NA) of Armenia on Wednesday gave its consent—with 65 votes—to Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan’s petition for parliamentary consent to launch criminal proceedings against opposition MP Mher Sahakyan.

Earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am reported that this petition is related to the incident on March 31, when during the meeting of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, Sahakyan had punched Vladimir Vardanyan, the chairman of this committee and a lawmaker from the ruling majority "Civil Contract" Faction of the NA, in the temple. As a result, Vardanyan was slightly injured.

The criminal investigation into this incident has obtained facts that provide a basis for launching a public criminal prosecution against opposition MP Mher Sahakyan—and under the Criminal Code articles on hooliganism, and causing minor health injury due to hooliganism.

Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan on Tuesday presented at the NA the petition for parliamentary consent to launch criminal proceedings against Sahakyan.

And Mher Sahakyan, for his part, had said that he will vote in favor of launching criminal proceedings against him.