Artsakh lawyer: Armenian security forces searching apartments of Artsakh resident`s relatives over threats against premier

ArmInfo. For the third day, Armenian security forces have been searching apartments rented by relatives and friends of Artsakh resident Mher Mirzoyan in connection with the well-known video featuring five masked individuals making threats against Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Artsakh lawyer Roman Yeritsyan reported this on his Facebook page.

He claims he was informed of this by a woman whose apartment was also searched early in the morning three days ago in connection with this case. Yeritsyan recounted that, according to her, the apartment was ransacked, phones were confiscated from family members, and the girl's mother and others were detained, all in the presence of her children, aged nine months and two years. "The family was intimidated and effectively isolated. After their phones were confiscated, they lost contact with relatives, couldn't take the children to the doctor, are apparently under surveillance, and even found my phone number, they say, with great difficulty," the lawyer added.

He also noted that, according to his information, Mher Mirzoyan is suspected solely based on his physical resemblance, namely, his eye color. "This is despite the fact that the eye color of the man speaking in the video is clearly different from Mher Mirzoyan's. Moreover, the latter has been living in Russia for over three years, yet the investigation continues, and a wanted list has been issued for Mirzoyan," Yeritsyan concluded. As a reminder, pro-government media outlets previously circulated a video showing unknown armed individuals threatening Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the Artsakh dialect and calling on Armenian citizens not to vote for him in the parliamentary elections. The Investigative Committee of Armenia has opened a criminal case into this incident. On May 18, during the election campaign, Pashinyan showed the video and then threatened opposition leaders, promising to bring them "to their knees." Notably, the Armenian prime minister later stated that the masked individuals who spread the threats on social media were located outside of Armenia. He noted that law enforcement agencies had identified the approximate number of individuals featured in the video.