The 36-year-old man, Mher Khachatrian, lambasted Investigative Committee chief Artur Poghosian in a social media post that followed the latter’s February 1 interview with Armenian Public Television. He said Poghosian is an “unprincipled clown” who “proved that he serves not the law and the people but the whims of a maniacal antichrist.”

Khachatrian also accused the Investigative Committee of executing Pashinian’s illegal orders to obstruct an upcoming episcopal conference of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Austria. Later in February, the committee stopped Garegin and six bishops from attending the gathering by bringing criminal charges against them.

The law-enforcement agency also charged Khachatrian with spreading “defamatory information” about the work of Poghosian and other investigators. Khachatrian, who avoided pre-trial arrest, will face up to five years in prison if found guilty by a local court. He said at the start of his trial that the criminal case is part of government efforts to stifle dissent in the country.

The Gyumri man has denounced Pashinian’s controversial efforts to depose Garegin that have been accompanied by arrests and prosecutions of many priests. He is a staunch supporter of the Gyumri-based Archbishop Mikael Ajapanian, who was arrested last June and subsequently sentenced to two years in prison on charges of calling for a violent regime change. Ajapahian was moved to house arrest in February.

Khachatrian is not the only person prosecuted for their anti-government statements made on social media. Armenian prosecutors have not denied reports that they are monitoring people posting angry comments about Pashinian and other state officials and have ordered criminal investigations into some of them. The total number of such criminal cases remains unknown.

Also in February, a young Yerevan resident was arrested for posting an offensive video about Pashinian on the TikTok platform. Another Pashinian critic, a 55-year-old woman from the northwestern town of Akhurian, was prosecuted for making a disparaging statement about the prime minister and his family in a private message sent online.

No political allies or other supporters of Pashinian are known to have been prosecuted for offending or voicing threats against opposition politicians. In late December, one government loyalist publicly called for the murder of Garegin, the supreme head of the Armenian Church. The Investigative Committee did not charge him.

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