Armenian opposition mayor detained after prime minister vows crackdown

By Lucy Papachristou TBILISI, Oct 20 (Reuters) – The opposition mayor of Armenia's second-largest city was detained on charges of bribe-taking on Monday, as authorities crack down on government critics before an election next year in the South Caucasus country. Vardan Ghukasyan, the mayor of Gyumri, is an ally of the pro-Russian opposition leader Robert Kocharyan, who served as Armenia's president from 1998 to 2008. Led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who swept to power following street protests in 2018, Armenia has moved closer to the West and distanced itself from traditional ally Russia. Recent months have seen a widespread clampdown on Pashinyan's political rivals and critics, including opposition figures, senior church figures and another former president ahead of a parliamentary election to be held next June. Armenia's anti-corruption committee said on Monday it had opened an investigation into Ghukasyan and seven others on suspicion they had demanded a bribe of roughly $10,000 from a local citizen in connection with an unauthorised building project. Armenian media outlets posted video on Telegram showing large numbers of police assembled outside the administrative building in Gyumri, a city of some 110,000. The Gyumri mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ghukasyan's arrest comes after Pashinyan vowed earlier this month to "throw out" the Gyumri mayor and questioned his victory in an election in the spring in which Pashinyan's Civil Contract party was defeated. "I think we also have a problem with the election results," Pashinyan told parliament on October 1. "We know that election bribes were distributed there, and we need to have mechanisms to exclude such cases in the future." Ghukasyan ran for mayor on the Armenian Communist Party ticket and was appointed in March. Gyumri, which lies close to the border with Turkey, hosts a large Russian military base. Ghukasyan is facing several other criminal charges related to his past tenure as Gyumri mayor from 1999 to 2012. His son, Spartak, was put under house arrest last week on extortion charges rejected by the elder Ghukasyan as politically motivated. (Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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