The Armenian security services have detained two journalists known for their pro-Kremlin views, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported on Friday, citing Armenia’s Investigative Committee .
Ashot Gevorkyan, a columnist for the pro-Kremlin Sputnik Armenia news agency, and the pro-Moscow blogger Mikael Badalyan, both Armenian citizens, were detained Wednesday evening in the city of Goris on suspicion of illegal arms trafficking.
Photo: pro-Kremlin blogger Mikael Badalyan/social media
The Investigative Committee statement revealed that police searches of the pair’s apartments and cars had recovered “an AK assault rifle, live ammunition rounds, grenades, grenade detonators, pistols, bayonet knives” as well as “hemp plants”.
A lawyer representing the pair claimed that the weapons didn’t belong to them and were the property of a “third person”.
Five other people were also reportedly detained, though their names have not been disclosed.
Badalyan was arrested in July in connection to disinformation being spread about terrorist attacks being prepared in Yerevan, Sputnik Armenia reported. He was subsequently released on bail.
Photo: Ashot Gevorgyan’s personal archives/Sputnik
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the journalists’ detention a “provocation” and suggested it was aimed at sowing “hatred, fear, and distrust”.
