Attorney Ruben Melikian said the measure includes restrictions on Samsonian’s public speech.

Samsonian and his co-host on the Imnemnimi podcast, Vazgen Saghatelian, were jailed in November for verbally abusing Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian in response to his insults.

Simonian branded the two podcasters as “sons of a b*tch” when he commented on their seven-hour interview with former President Serzh Sarkisian broadcast live on YouTube earlier that month. They responded to him with offensive language.

The speaker affiliated with the ruling Civil Contract party demanded criminal proceedings against them, saying that they not only insulted but also threatened him. Two days later, officers of Armenia’s National Security Service demonstratively detained the podcasters, searching their homes and their studio in the process. Another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, swiftly charged them with hooliganism.

The two vocal critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian continued to strongly deny the accusation when they went on trial on January 9. Samsonian announced his hunger strike in the courtroom right after the presiding judge extended his and Saghatelian’s arrest by three months.

The Court of Appeals overturned that extension in February, granting Samsonian house arrest, ten days after he underwent surgery in a hospital in Yerevan following a two-week hunger strike in prison. Samsonian stopped refusing food in late January after prison authorities reluctantly allowed his transfer to the Izmirlian Medical Center in the Armenian capital.

Earlier this month, a coalition of Western press freedom groups for the first time included Armenia on its list of countries in wider Europe jailing journalists or other media figures. In doing so, the Platform for the Safety of Journalists cited the pre-trial detention of the two Armenian podcasters.

Dozens of other critics of Pashinian, including an opposition mayor and three archbishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church, have also been arrested in recent months in what the Armenian opposition calls a pre-election government crackdown on dissent. The authorities deny that they are political prisoners.

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In response to a written request from RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, the government said on March 24 it cannot provide information on the payments to the mentioned senior officials, citing restrictions under the country’s freedom of information and personal data laws, as well as the labor code.

Meanwhile, only several months ago, the government provided the Hetq online magazine with information on the amount of the prime minister’s bonus for the first half of 2025, which was about 12 million drams (approximately $31,500).

The government referred RFE/RL’s Armenian Service to a decision issued several weeks ago, which only specifies the total bonus funds to be allocated across government departments. According to that decision, more than 4.6 billion drams (about $12.1 million) will be distributed to state employees by the middle of the year. Officials in the executive branch have not yet received their bonuses.

Hefty bonuses for government officials have been criticized by opposition figures and civic activists, who claim the payments constitute a form of political corruption.

Critics have also argued that awarding cash to political allies and public sector employees is intended to secure their loyalty ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for June.

Prime Minister Pashinian and other officials have rejected these accusations, defending the bonuses. In January, Pashinian told reporters that the extra pay helps prevent corruption among senior officials.

“Armenia’s investment environment is changing significantly, and large-scale investments will soon flow into Armenia. There will be a lot of competition to implement investment projects in Armenia, and our assessment in this regard is that corruption risks could rise significantly, so we need to protect state officials against corruption risks,” he said.

Pashinian also argued that the bonuses are needed to retain skilled professionals within the government, preventing them from moving to the private sector.

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The incident occurred on March 22 during a live-streamed metro ride in Yerevan that Pashinian and his political allies staged as part of their weekly campaign outings in the run-up to the June parliamentary elections.

During the encounter, the prime minister confronted a woman later identified as Armine Mosiyan, who refused to accept a pin depicting Armenia without Nagorno-Karabakh or allow him to give it to her young son.

Mosiyan, a 36-year-old daughter of a soldier killed during the first Karabakh war in the early 1990s, was among more than 100,000 Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s military takeover of the region in September 2023.

In a heated exchange Pashinian referred to Karabakh Armenians collectively as “runaways” and said they had no right to accuse him of “giving away” the region.

The incident, broadcast online by the prime minister’s team, triggered strong reactions on social media. Pashinian later apologized to the woman and her son, citing “heightened emotion” and acknowledging “inappropriate remarks, gesturing and facial _expression_.” He also said he wished to meet her again for a “calm” conversation and invited her to his office to deliver a personal apology.

On March 23, a group of leading Armenian non-governmental organizations, including the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center, the Yerevan Press Club, the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Armenian Committee, the Media Initiatives Center and others, issued a joint statement condemning the prime minister’s behavior.

“We, the undersigned civil society organizations, consider unacceptable and condemn the conduct and rhetoric of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinian, during a conversation on March 22, 2026 with a woman forcibly displaced from Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh]. This behavior constitutes not only a violation of the standards of conduct expected of a public official, but also reflects intolerance and hate speech towards Armenians forcibly displaced from Artsakh,” the statement said.

The NGOs said the presence of the woman’s child during the exchange was particularly troubling, arguing that it exposed the child to inappropriate conduct toward his mother and involved him in a political campaign.

“We find it unacceptable as it shapes future generations’ perceptions of power, the quality of speech, and interpersonal relations. This incident also sends a broader signal to society, legitimizing violence and polarization, which, regrettably, tends to intensify in the pre-election period,” the statement said.

The groups also said that despite Pashinian’s apology, his remarks had already triggered a new wave of hatred and targeting against Karabakh Armenians, particularly on social media.

They argued that the spread of hate speech was further fueled by an article published by the media outlet civic.am, which they described as affiliated with the ruling Civil Contract party, alleging it sought to discredit the woman.

According to the NGOs’ statement, such rhetoric by public officials, including Pashinian and Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian, is not isolated. They emphasized that such behavior is particularly “unacceptable and alarming” as it “leads to increased polarization, undermines social cohesion, and results in the re-victimization of the forcibly displaced population.”

The organizations demanded that the Armenian authorities, in particular, Prime Minister Pashinian “refrain from and exclude the use of rhetoric that spreads hatred and intolerance, or contains discrimination and insult…; ensure accountability for individuals who express and disseminate hate speech against forcibly displaced persons from Artsakh; exercise restraint in public speech and adhere to the ethical standards and rules of conduct of public officials; ensure that public officials and media outlets moderate hate speech in posts and comments on their social media platforms; more broadly, guarantee respect for human rights and ensure the implementation of the rule of law in the Republic of Armenia, including the protection of the right to privacy.”

Earlier, Armenia’s state ombudsperson, Anahit Manasian, also urged officials to exercise restraint in public discourse when addressing issues affecting displaced persons and refugees.

Various opposition groups in Armenia also condemned Pashinian’s conduct and statements regarding Karabakh Armenians.

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Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, opposition lawmakers described as “blackmail” recent statements by Pashinian that Armenia could face another “disastrous” war “very soon” unless his ruling Civil Contract party secures a strong majority in the June 7 vote.

“This is already a crime,” said Artsvik Minasian of the Hayastan faction. “It is a threat designed to influence people’s will, which is prohibited and is a criminally punishable act.”

Minasian called on Armenia’s prosecutor-general to open an investigation into what he described as actions undermining the country’s sovereignty. He argued that invoking the possibility of war amounts to coercion of voters.

“The free _expression_ of the will is one of the important elements of democracy,” Minasian said. “When he [Pashinian] challenges the will of the people by invoking a probable war, that is, with possible violence, he is already committing a crime against sovereignty.”

Another opposition lawmaker, Taguhi Tovmasian from the Pativ Unem faction, also condemned what she described as intimidation of voters. She said the issue should draw attention not only within Armenia but also from international organizations.

“If we were a truly democratic country, and the Central Election Commission of Armenia weren’t a subsidiary of the ruling party, but a truly independent body, it would already have been established that there is an act of violence against the will of the citizens of Armenia,” Tovmasian said. She characterized the alleged pressure as a form of blackmail.

Tovmasian said that while past electoral fraud involved ballot stuffing, the government is now influencing voters through warnings of renewed conflict. She called on international bodies to register what she described as violations of voters’ free choice.

Pashinian and his allies have rejected the criticism, saying they are making political statements that reflect what they see as realistic risks facing Armenia if opposition forces come to power.

In a live video broadcast on Sunday, Pashinian said he had previously been criticized for failing to inform the public about the real situation before the 2020 war and suggested he was now doing exactly what his opponents once faulted him for not doing.

The prime minister has accused his opponents of planning to revise the current peace with Azerbaijan if they win the elections. He specifically named political forces associated with former President Robert Kocharian, Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetian, and businessman Gagik Tsarukian.

“I want to say this very directly that [if they win] it will be a war with the loss of not only territory but also sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinian said last week.

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan also warned in parliament of the risk of war if the ruling party is not reelected, citing what he described as territorial claims toward neighboring countries advocated by opposition parties.

Minasian rejected that assertion, saying the opposition is instead focused on securing international guarantees for the “safe and dignified” return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian government has not raised the issue of the return of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s military recapture of the region in 2023. Pashinian has said that doing so could hinder the current peace agenda and has urged Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev not to raise the issue of ethnic Azeris who left Armenia amid tensions at the start of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in the late 1980s.

Opposition leaders also say they support peace but argue it should include clear security guarantees from major international actors. They have criticized the peace deal initialed by Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington last year for lacking such guarantees.

Pashinian has dismissed those concerns, maintaining that Armenia’s primary security guarantee lies in its internationally recognized “legitimate” borders, with diplomacy and military strength serving as supporting factors.

He has also warned against trying to renegotiate the deal, arguing that any such attempt will inevitably lead to a new war.

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