Yesterday at about 4:30pm Armenia’s police released prominent pro-opposition businessman Khachatur Sukiasyan’s brother and one of his associates. Saribek Sukiasyan, the co-owner of the family’s SIL Concern holding company, and director of the Airarat market in Yerevan Artash Stepanyan, were kept in police custody for more than 72 hours on suspicion of threatening to kill a fellow entrepreneur in what Armenia’s main opposition has described as another example of political persecution against its supporters. Let us remember that on February 12 at about 4:30p.m. Saribek Sukiasyan and one of his associates, Artash Stepanyan, were forcibly taken to a police station in Erebuni district from the offices of the Sukiasyan family’s SIL Concern holding company. They were suspected of threatening to kill a fellow entrepreneur. But no weapon was found with the suspects. The latter signed a written undertaking not to leave the city while the investigation into a murder threat claim made against them was in progress.
