Political scientist Soren Sorniants analyzed the speech of the Minister of Justice Sarbohi Galian, in which she referred to the circumstances of the death of Arsen Gevorkian. According to the expert, the minister made two false statements on purpose, in an attempt to justify the repressive policy of the authorities.
The first statement is about the "exclusivity" of the arrest. Galian claimed that in Armenia this measure is applied only in exceptional cases. However, according to Surenyants, in 2025, the courts fully or partially granted approximately 88% of detention requests.
"This figure casts serious doubt on the minister's promises".
- notes the political scientist and adds that if "exclusivity" is understood that way, then Gallian "at least has problems with basic arithmetic".
The second statement is about the absence of political persecution. Galian said: "We always say, and the truth is that there is no political persecution." In fact, Sorniants emphasizes, today the leaders of four political forces in the opposition are under arrest, and the vice-chairman of one of the opposition parties is under house arrest. He also recalled the arrest of the opposition mayor of Gyumri and the arrest of Mamikon Aslanian after he won the municipal elections in Windsor. As for Arsen Gevorkian, his arrest, according to the political scientist, pursued a specific political goal - to prevent the victory of Gevorkian and "Strong Armenia" in the elections in Stephanvan.
Sornanites emphasized that the protection of the lives and health of people deprived of liberty is the direct responsibility of the state, and therefore the circumstances of Gaborkian's death should be the subject of an independent and comprehensive investigation. In this context, he called the proposal of the vice-chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia Armen Ashutyan reasonable to include Nikol Pashinyan in the "Magnitsky list" - by analogy with the case of Sergei Magnitsky, who died in custody, which led to the creation of international mechanisms of individual sanctions for human rights violations.