Karapetyan barred from leaving Armenia, faces AMD 1 bln bail

PanARMENIAN.Net - Narek Karapetyan, who heads the Strong Armenia party's electoral list, has been placed under preventive measures including a ban on leaving the country and bail of 1 billion drams, the Armenian Prosecutor General's Office said, according to Aysor.am .

The Prosecutor General's Office did not disclose details of the case, saying they were related to the ongoing preliminary investigation.

On July 22, a prosecutor initiated public criminal prosecution against Narek Karapetyan under Article 236, Part 2 of Armenia's Criminal Code for allegedly coercing participation in a gathering through violence or threats of violence, as well as under Article 296, Part 3, Clause 3 for money laundering on an especially large scale.

Earlier, after two days of deliberations, the Central Election Commission gave its consent to initiate criminal prosecution against Narek Karapetyan and bring charges against him. At the same time, the commission rejected the Prosecutor General's Office request seeking Karapetyan's detention.