Hayk Sargsyan, an MP from the majority “My Step” Faction of the new elected National Assembly of Armenia, on Saturday met with a group of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin) city residents who have blocked the road leading to Zvartnots International Airport of capital city of Yerevan, and with the demand that fellow city resident, retired General Manvel Grigoryan, be immediately remanded in custody yet again.

Sargsyan tried to convince the protesters to open the road, but they were adamant.

The newly elected lawmaker said to them that this was not the way to wage a fight because with this, the rights of other citizens were being curtailed.

He proposed to the demonstrators to march toward the Vagharshapat town square and to calmly discuss the situation there; but the protesters did not agree.

On December 21, 2018 the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction released Manvel Grigoryan from custody on an AMD 25mn (approx. US$51,600) bail. The Prosecutor General’s Office, however, has appealed this decision to the Criminal Court of Appeal.

Grigoryan was remanded in custody on June 19, and by the decision of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction.

He is charged with unlawfully acquiring and possessing weapons and ammunition, as well as committing large-scale embezzlement. In particular, it is about the appropriation of the aid that was sent during the days of the four-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), in April 2016.