Yerevan (AFP) – Armenian police said protest leader Nikol Pashinyan was on Sunday “forcibly taken” from a protest rally, dismissing reports of his arrest as riot police and demonstrators clashed in Yerevan. 

“Despite repeated calls to stop illegal rallies, Pashinyan continued leading a demonstration” in Yerevan, police said in a statement, adding that Pashinyan and two other opposition MPs “were forcibly taken from the site” as riot police dispersed the rally.