The leading member of the armed opposition group that stormed an Armenian police base in 2016 was set free on Friday pending the outcome of his ongoing trial.
A court in Yerevan agreed to release Varuzhan Avetisian as well as another jailed militant, Arayik Khandoyan, from custody at least until a verdict in the high-profile case. The decision was requested by three Armenian parliament deputies who guaranteed in writing that Avetisian and Khandoyan will not obstruct justice if freed. Trial prosecutors did not object to it.
The two men have been standing trial along with more than two dozen other members and supporters of a radical opposition movement, Founding Parliament, who seized the police base in Yerevan’s Erebuni district in July 2016.
The gunmen led by Avetisian demanded that then President Serzh Sarkisian free Founding Parliament’s jailed leader, Zhirayr Sefilian, and step down. They laid down their weapons after a two-week standoff with security forces which left three police officers dead.
Shortly after becoming prime minister on May 8, Nikol Pashinian publicly listed Sefilian, but not the jailed gunmen, among the individuals who he believes were imprisoned for political reasons. Pashinian said the Erebuni attack case is “a bit different” because of the three casualties. He said it should be resolved as a result of public “discussions” that must involve relatives of the slain policemen.
Avetisian condemned Pashinian’s remarks as “buffoonery” and “false humanism” later in May. He again strongly defended the 2016 attack, saying that casualties are inevitable during such “rebellions.”
“If the political prisoners remain in jail that will be fraught with severe consequences for our country and the revolution,” Avetisian and Sefilian warned in a subsequent letter to Pashinian.
On June 5, Avetisian and other members of the group calling itself Sasna Tsrer issued a statement in which they voiced support for Pashinian’s government and renounced violent methods of political struggle. Armenian courts began freeing them the following day.
Immediately after his release, Avetisian, Khandoyan and a group of their supporters headed to Yerevan’s Republic Square where Pashinian held a rally dedicated to his 100 days in office. Avetisian reaffirmed his and Sefilian’s plans to set up a political party that will participate in snap parliamentary elections planned by Pashinian.
Only three members of Sasna Tsrer remain under arrest. Two of them are accused of killing the three policemen: Colonel Artur Vanoyan and Warrant Officers Gagik Mkrtchian and Yuri Tepanosian.
Pashinian met with relatives of the slain officers in late June. Some of them decried the release of Sasna Tsrer members before the meeting.