Prosperous Armenia member warns of 'lynch justice' amid Tsarukyan's prosecution

Shake Isayan, a member of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), has denounced the prosecution of its leader Gagik Tsarukyan, warning that Armenia’s justice system risks being reduced to political spectacle.

“Justice is not a circus,” Isayan wrote on Facebook on Wednesday, criticizing video releases by the Investigative Committee and describing them as staged performances meant to undermine public trust. She argued that authoritarianism begins when courts are replaced by cameras and justice becomes selective.

Isayan said the broader damage lies not in Tsarukyan’s personal case but in the blow to Armenia’s institutions. “The moment citizens believe justice serves political interests rather than the law, the greatest victim is the state itself,” she noted.

She cautioned that anyone could face “lynch justice” if it serves the appetite of a single individual, referring to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, while lamenting that centuries of hard-won Armenian statehood should not be reduced to “petty dreams of fortune-seekers.”