Armenia's Central Election Commission (CEC) has returned to the Prosecutor General's Office a request seeking consent to initiate criminal proceedings against Gagik Tsarukyan, the top candidate on the Prosperous Armenia Party's electoral list.

The decision was adopted during the CEC's July 8 meeting.

The commission also returned similar requests concerning several candidates from the Strong Armenia alliance. The CEC had not considered those requests earlier because of its workload related to the Constitutional Court's review of challenges to the parliamentary election results.

Following the certification of the National Assembly election results, the CEC had received requests from the Prosecutor General's Office seeking consent to initiate criminal proceedings against several parliamentary candidates and, in some cases, to authorize their detention.

"Under the Electoral Code, the rights and obligations established for parliamentary candidates apply until the expiration of the deadline for challenging the Central Election Commission's decision on the election of members of the National Assembly, and, if that decision is challenged, until the Constitutional Court adopts its ruling. Accordingly, the rights and obligations of parliamentary candidates remained in force until July 4, 2026," the statement said.

The CEC noted that it has no authority to grant consent for criminal prosecution or detention of individuals who no longer hold the legal status of parliamentary candidates.

The returned requests concerned Levon Nalbandyan, Hayk Avagyan, Mher Aghamyan, Narek Karapetyan and Sasun Badoyan, all candidates on the electoral list of the Strong Armenia alliance. In the cases of Avagyan, Aghamyan, Karapetyan and Badoyan, prosecutors had also sought the CEC's consent for detention.

Beginning early on July 6, officers of the National Security Service, the State Revenue Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted simultaneous searches at more than 70 locations, including Tsarukyan's residence and companies linked to him. Tsarukyan was detained. On July 7, the Court of First Instance of the Avan and Nor Nork administrative districts ordered him held in pretrial detention for two months.