Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian has ignored a second summons from law-enforcement officials investigating an arson attack reported ahead of a mayoral election in the town of Abovian.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee said on Wednesday that Tsarukian failed to show up for an interrogation scheduled for Tuesday evening without any explanation.
A spokeswoman for the committee, Naira Harutiunian, warned that the law-enforcement agency is legally empowered to detain and question him as a witness. But she would not say whether it will exercise that right.
“I don’t want to rush and say at the moment whether or not the investigating body will detain Mr. Tsarukian,” Harutiunian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “But I will note that [such a detention] does not run counter to the law.”
Tsarukian, meanwhile, raged at an RFE/RL correspondent who wondered if he is worried about the possibility of being forcibly taken to the Investigative Committee for questioning. “You are saying silly things,” he told her.
Asked whether he finds it silly to comply with the law, the BHK leader replied: “You yourself go and comply with the law with your family. Tsarukian carries out everything one by one.”
Tsarukian said he did not visit the investigators because he had his lawyers send them a written explanation relating to the attack reported one day before Abovian’s BHK-backed incumbent Mayor Vahan Gevorgian defeated Grigor Gulian, his challenger representing the ruling Civil Contract party.
The car and apartment door of Gulian’s election campaign manager, Vahan Saribekian, were set on fire. Saribekian blamed the BHK for the attack. Tsarukian’s party denied any responsibility for it.
Echoing his previous statements, Tsarukian suggested on Wednesday that the incident was a staged-managed “show” aimed at “casting a shadow over the election.”
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