Text of report by Armenian news agency Snark on 5th May Yerevan,
4th May: The election headquarters of the Law and Unity bloc (leaders - Artashes Gegamyan and Grant Khachatryan) issued a statement today in connection with officials on duty being beaten up at the party headquarters in Yerevan's Avan community.
The incident happened in the afternoon of 3rd May. The statement by the headquarters, received by Snark news agency, says that when Ashot, the driver of the head of Avan community, Ruben Ayrapetyan, turned up at the office at about 1400 [0900 gmt] on 3rd May he managed to trick several young men on duty to leave the office and get into his car and subsequently beat them up. On the same day, Gor, the son of the candidate for deputy, Gagik Konstandyan, who is running for election as a candidate for the Law and Unity bloc in the third precinct of Avan community was assaulted.
According to the election headquarters, several days ago, Ruben Ayrapetyan, summoned the directors of kindergartens in the community and demanded that they work for a certain candidate for deputy. Asked by a Snark correspondent who exactly he meant, the bloc headquarters had difficulty in answering. The election headquarters of the Law and Unity bloc condemns this crime and demands that the authorities carry out a complete and impartial investigation and bring the culprits to book. Otherwise, the authorities themselves will be responsible for the incident, the statement by the bloc says. We should point out that the Law and Unity election bloc is backed by Defence Minister of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic Samvel Babayan. Source: Snark news agency, Yerevan, in Russian 1430 gmt 05 May 99