Liudmila Sarkisyan: Armenian authorities use provocations trying to stop the opposition

In her interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent Liudmila Sarkisyan, chair of the Social-Democratic Party, has treated the arrest of four members of the pre-electoral staff of Levon Ter-Petrosyan located in the city of Talin as a provocation.

We note here that on January 27, during a populous rally of Ter-Petrosyan in Talin, one of the participants, who later appeared to be a Karabakh war veteran Sarkis Karapetyan, started to shout out obscene words against the first president. Some persons tried to stop him and drive away from the rally; a fight burst out, and four members of the pre-electoral staff of Ter-Petrosyan were detained by the police.

Initially, Zhora and Mkrtich Sapeyans, Tigran Bagdasaryan and Gaik Gevorkyan were accused under Article 118 of the Criminal code of beating. The Article does not assume initiation of a criminal case or arrest, just a fine worth 100 floor salaries. However, on January 30, the regional police administration of Talin changed the Article; and now the four detainees are charged under Article 258 of the Criminal Code - hooliganism. Unlike Article 118, allowing maximum detention for 72 hours, Article 258 stipulates longer terms of arrest.