Manukian, who is a senior member of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), on Friday insisted that the confiscation was illegal and demanded that the authorities give his mobile phone back to him.
Manukian’s son Taron was among seven young Dashnaktsutyun activists who were detained on July 10 on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks. Only two of them were charged and remanded in-pretrial custody. The five other activists, including Taron Manukian, were freed without charge three days later.
Manukian Jr. was detained right after investigators searched the Yerevan apartment where he lives with his parents. They forcibly wrested the phone from his father during the search even though the latter is not a suspect or even a witness in the case.
Gegham Manukian said that he has still not received any official explanation for the confiscation which he believes violated his parliamentary immunity from prosecution. He said he has sent a corresponding “crime report” to Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetian despite being certain that she will likely ignore it. He accused Vardapetian and other law-enforcement officials of continuing to execute Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s politically motivated orders.
A spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee said, meanwhile, that the law-enforcement agency is still “examining” the phone’s content as part of the inquiry conducted by it. Kima Avdalian did not clarify what Manukian has to do with the probe.
“The phone was seized as part of criminal proceedings … and will be returned after the examination is completed,” Avdalian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Several other Dashnaktsutyun members were arrested on June 25 along with Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian on charges of plotting to topple the government through “terrorist acts.” Artur Sargsian, another Dashnaktsutyun parliamentarian, was arrested and charged as part of the same criminal case on July 8. They all deny the accusations.
Dashnaktsutyun and other opposition groups say that the crackdown is aimed at neutralizing opposition resistance to more Armenian concessions to Azerbaijan planned by Pashinian. The authorities deny this.