Armenian opposition MP says arrests of podcasters were 'predictable'

Armenian opposition MP Tigran Abrahamyan said that the arrests of the Imnemnimi podcast co-hosts were entirely “predictable”, claiming that senior government officials had already signaled such a move.

Vazgen Saghatelyan and Narek Samsonyan were detained on Thursday morning following searches conducted at their homes.

In a social media post, Abrahamyan, secretary of the Pativ Unem faction, argued that the specific charges were irrelevant to the authorities. “When there is an order, they can always find an article to apply,” he wrote.

Saghatelyan and Samsonyan recently conducted a widely watched interview with former President Serzh Sargsyan. Abrahamyan suggested that the interview, combined with what he described as the authorities’ “long-standing animosity” toward the pair, triggered their arrests.

“The outcome and the authorities’ script are now entirely predictable,” he added.