Activist Samvel Vardanyan released on bail, placed under house arrest

Activist Samvel Vardanyan, an Armenian government critic who was detained after confronting a pro-government MP on Monday, has been released on bail and placed under house arrest.

Vardanyan was arrested on charges of hooliganism after an altercation with MP Hakob Aslanyan from Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party on a bus in Yerevan. He was later charged with inciting political enmity.

Vardanyan’s lawyers stated that their client was beaten by a group of masked men while being escorted by two police officers to a detention center.

The man must now post a bail of 7 million drams within three days or face renewed detention, his lawyer Ruben Melikyan said.

“We have to collect the sum in three days. There was no other realistic option for his release,” he wrote.

Judge Zhora Chichoyan of Yerevan's First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction issued the decision on Wednesday night.