Investigative Committee of Armenia reports the seizure of weapons and plans to seize power from members of the "Sacred Struggle" and the detention of 14 people
YEREVAN, June 25. /ARКА/. The Investigative Committee of Armenia reported that as a result of searches in the apartments of the leaders and participants of the "Sacred Struggle" movement, numerous items intended for committing crimes, as well as documents, were found.
"As part of the initiated criminal proceedings on the facts of preparation of terrorist acts and seizure of power by the leaders and participants of the "Sacred Struggle" movement, employees of the Investigative Committee, the National Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted more than 90 searches. As a result, items and documents were found that confirm the data of the preliminary investigation, as well as other irrefutable evidence," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Firearms and ammunition, action plans, lists of recruited persons, metal objects, firecrackers, smoke and radio communication devices, military uniforms, unmanned aerial vehicles, plant substances similar to drugs, lists of persons who were to be appointed to relevant positions in the executive branch after the violent seizure of power, as well as documents related to the detailed planning of illegal actions, their sequence and chronology were found.
Based on the investigator's petition, the supervising prosecutor made decisions to initiate criminal public prosecution against 16 persons, which were satisfied.
Currently, 14 people have been detained based on the investigator's decisions.
The preliminary investigation is ongoing.
On searches in the homes of opposition members
The day before, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan shared a pdf file from the Civic am website entitled "Opposition Coup Plan" on social networks. In particular, it outlines the actions that are supposed to gradually lead to the overthrow of Nikol Pashinyan's regime and the transition to a new system of power.
Today, the Investigative Committee of Armenia announced that it is conducting investigative actions against the participants and leaders of the "Sacred Struggle" movement, who, as the Investigative Committee notes, "planned to carry out terrorist actions and actions aimed at seizing power in the country." Pashinyan shared the Investigative Committee's press release, adding that "a large-scale and vile "criminal-oligarchic" plan to destabilize and seize power in the Republic of Armenia has been thwarted."
From early morning, searches were conducted in the homes of the organization's supporters, including the home of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan in Yerevan, the heads of the ARF committees in Yerevan, Abovyan, Hrazdan and Noyemberyan.
Later, it became known that Galstanyan and several other oppositionists had been detained.
