Hundreds of angry protesters broke into Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s office and the Armenian parliament and ransacked them on November 10, 2020 just hours after the announcement of a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the six-week war in Nagorno-Karabakh. They condemned the ceasefire agreement as a sellout.
The Investigative Committee said that the nine suspects were among the protesters who forced their way into the main government building in Yerevan. It said it charged them with involvement in the “mass disturbances” and asked a court to remand them in pre-trial custody.
The committee did not identify any of the suspects. It was not immediately clear whether they will plead guilty to the accusations.
Protesters also beat up and seriously injured then parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan, who now serves as Armenia’s foreign minister. On May 14, a Yerevan court sentenced one man to three and a half years in prison in connection with that assault.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament on May 12, the head of the Investigative Committee, Artur Poghosian, indicated that more men will be charged in connection with the 2020 violence soon. He described the criminal case as one of his top priorities.
Another law-enforcement agency, the National Security Service, indicted about 50 people and arrested 18 of them in the wake of the violent protests. It is not clear how many of them were subsequently tried and convicted.
The riots were followed by weeks of peaceful anti-government demonstrations staged by Armenia’s leading opposition groups. They hold Pashinian responsible for the outcome of the war that left at least 3,800 Armenian soldiers dead. Pashinian has blamed the defeat on Armenia’s former governments.