Oligarch and head of the Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan was put in custody on Friday, September 25 for two months ahead of a trial on charges of vote-buying in 2017 parliamentary elections.

"Such a decision was obviously predictable for us, that's why Mr. Tsarukyan did not attend the hearing but went to the the National Security Service immediately," his lawyer Samvel Dilbandyan said Friday.

The motion was brought to the court by the National Security Service.

The country's National Assembly stripped Tsarukyan of his immunity in June, allowing him to be arrested, after the NSS raided his home and interrogated him.

Three criminal cases have been launched against him and companies owned and run by him over illegal business activity, electoral bribery and land alienation.

Tsarukyan's arrest was ordered by the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction over allegations of misconduct surrounding the 2017 elections, which preceded the peaceful revolution of spring 2018.