Another Armenian Arrested For Insulting Pashinian

In a live Facebook broadcast, Artak Avetisian, a resident of Yerevan’s southern Shengavit district, lashed out at Pashinian as the latter campaigned there on Tuesday. Avetisian was arrested from his home shortly afterwards. His family circulated a video of police officers forcing the handcuffed businessman into their car.

Armenia’s Investigative Committee formally charged Avetisian with disseminating hate speech after its officers searched his house on Thursday afternoon. The law-enforcement agency also asked a court to remand him in pretrial detention.

Ruben Melikian, a prominent pro-opposition lawyer representing Avetisian, insisted that his client did not break any laws. Melikian denounced the criminal case as politically motivated, saying that the Armenian authorities are continuing to crack down on their vocal critics ahead of the June 7 elections.

One of those critics was arrested and charged with hooliganism in February two months after posting an offensive video about Pashinian on the TikTok platform. Another citizen, a 55-year-old woman from the northwestern town of Akhurian, was prosecuted around the same time for reportedly making a disparaging statement about the prime minister and his family in a private message sent online.

Armenian prosecutors have not denied reports that they are monitoring people posting angry comments about Pashinian on social media and have ordered criminal investigations into some of them.

No Pashinian supporters have been prosecuted for offending or voicing threats against opposition politicians. In late December, one government loyalist publicly called for the murder of Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church whom Pashinian has been trying to depose. The Investigative Committee did not charge or even interrogate him.

Pashinian himself publicly insulted the fugitive son of one of his main election challengers, Gagik Tsarukian, during his campaign visit to Shengavit.

—