Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has approved a request from the Prosecutor General’s Office to open criminal proceedings against Robert Kocharyan, former president and leader of the opposition Armenia Alliance.

The decision was announced by Kocharyan’s lawyer, Aram Orbelyan, speaking to reporters outside the CEC building. The Prosecutor General’s Office had earlier filed petitions seeking permission to prosecute not only Kocharyan but also Armenia Alliance parliamentary candidates Asatur Kocharyan and Ruslan Barseghyan, listed 154th and 62nd, respectively, on the alliance’s electoral list.

Authorities have not yet publicly detailed the nature of the allegations.

In response, Kocharyan’s office condemned the move as politically motivated, tying it to an incident at Yerevan’s international airport two days earlier, when the former president was reportedly stopped from leaving the country. “In fact, two days ago the Investigative and Anti-Corruption Committees were stating that there were no criminal proceedings, and therefore the president’s departure was restricted through a direct violation of the law,” Kocharyan’s office said in a statement.

The statement further alleged that authorities had hastily fabricated a case after the airport incident. “Today the prosecutor’s office under the government ‘stitched up’ some kind of criminal case and petitioned to the CEC,” the statement read.

Representatives of the Strong Armenia alliance also criticized the recent criminal proceedings against opposition figures. Speaking to reporters outside the CEC, lawyer and parliamentary candidate Aram Vardevanyan condemned the case against fellow candidate Davit Ghazinyan as politically motivated and designed to intimidate opposition supporters. “The sole purpose has been to cultivate an atmosphere of fear… not legal reasoning, but an attempt to foster intimidation,” Vardevanyan said, criticizing the Anti-Corruption Committee for releasing investigative recordings during the election campaign.

Vardevanyan said the Prosecutor General’s Office had filed petitions with the CEC seeking authorization to prosecute and detain several opposition figures, including Ghazinyan, Ashot Yeghiazaryan, Ruslan Barseghyan, Robert Kocharyan, and Asatur Kocharyan.

He argued that there were no legal grounds for detention, claiming the evidence cited by investigators did not directly implicate Ghazinyan. “This is an absurdity,” Vardevanyan said, arguing that there is “no substantiated connection” between his colleague and the alleged offense.

The developments deepen tensions between the Armenian authorities and opposition forces after the June 7 parliamentary elections, in which both the Armenia Alliance and the Strong Armenia alliance entered parliament as the two largest opposition forces.