Police searching Armenian nationalist party member's apartment

The search is being conducted in the apartment of Simon Simonyan, chairman of the supreme body of the [ultranationalist] Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party - Dashnaktsutyun.

“The Armenian law enforcement agencies are still demonstrating lawlessness,” the party said, Caliber.Az reports citing the Armenian media.

Earlier, Member of Armenian ex-president Kocharyan's "Armenia" faction of the Armenian parliament Kristine Vardanyan told the journalists that police officers entered Simonyan’s apartment on January 11. Simonyan has the status of a witness. On the same day, the search operations were carried out in the houses of several Dashnaktsutyun members. Three party representatives were brought in, and two had the status of a witness.

According to the Armenian Investigative Committee, the search operations were carried out as part of the criminal proceedings initiated in accordance with Part 2 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code (forcing people to participate in legal or illegal actions under the threat of violence, damage to property or blackmail).