On January 29, the former governor of Armenia’s Syunik Province, Vahe Hakobyan, is summoned to the Syunik provincial investigation department; according to investigator H. Sargsyan, he will be questioned as a witness. Hakobyan’s lawyers Erik Aleksanyan and Zhirayr Gharagyozyan have noted about this in a statement.

"We believe it is no secret that in practice, the criminal prosecution bodies have formed such an illegal practice, according to which a person is summoned for questioning as a so called ‘witness’ and then arrested, thus giving him the status of a suspect. There are many such examples.

Naturally, the investigator did not inform on what case launched on what specific fact Mr. Hakobyan is summoned for questioning, which is already enough to prove that the initiated process is quite far from the legal domain.

A few days ago, we issued a statement that there is information that the law enforcement bodies have received instructions to start a ‘legal’ process against Vahe Hakobyan and deprive him of his liberty in every way. We inform the public that the mentioned information continues to exist in the objective reality, and we consider the summoning of Vahe Hakobyan for this questioning, as well as any other further action planned against him, as political persecution, as the basis for starting such an illegal process is exclusively the fact that Mr. Hakobyan has recently harshly criticized the RA [Republic of Armenia] government, which were undoubtedly objective and aimed at presenting current issues which are not only of economic, social nature, but also discredit the Republic of Armenia within the international arena," Hakobyan's lawyers added.