Armen Ashotyan’s house arrest has been extended for another three months, prolonging years of criminal proceedings and restrictions against one of Nikol Pashinyan’s most outspoken political opponents.
Since his first imprisonment in June 2023, the Republican Party of Armenia vice chairman has spent approximately 866 days either behind bars or under house arrest.
Prosecutor Mane Safaryan had argued that Ashotyan could interfere with the proceedings or influence witnesses if a less restrictive preventive measure were imposed, citing his public standing and the senior positions he has previously held.
Ashotyan is currently under house arrest in a criminal case concerning the transfer of property used by Brusov State University from state ownership into private hands. Investigators accuse him of abuse of official powers and money laundering. Ashotyan and his defense deny wrongdoing and maintain that the prosecution is politically motivated.
He was arrested in the case on June 5, 2026, just two days before Armenia’s parliamentary election, following weeks of active opposition campaigning and public criticism of Pashinyan.
Only hours earlier, Ashotyan and fellow Republican Party figure Eduard Sharmazanov had been providing live political commentary on the final televised election debate. His lawyer Ruben Melikyan said at the time that the arrest was intended to silence Ashotyan’s political activity.
Ashotyan was initially placed in pretrial detention before the Court of Appeal transferred him to house arrest on July 30.
The June arrest followed another prolonged period of confinement in a separate case connected to Yerevan State Medical University. Ashotyan was imprisoned in June 2023, spent approximately 15 months in pretrial detention and was then transferred to house arrest until August 2025, when the measure was replaced with administrative supervision.
That case itself grew out of an investigation launched in 2018, meaning the legal proceedings surrounding Ashotyan have now stretched across more than eight years, beginning shortly after Pashinyan came to power.
