ArmInfo. The single opposition candidate for Prime Minister of Armenia Vazgen Manukyan received a summons, according to which the Special Investigation Service (SIS) on February 20, 2021 opened a criminal case against him under Article 301 of the RA Criminal Code. This article provides for liability for public calls for the usurpation of power, overthrow of the constitutional order or violation of territorial integrity. For this crime, it is proposed to punish with a fine from 300 thousand drams to 500 thousand drams or arrest for a term of two to three months, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years. Article 301.1 introduces responsibility for coercing the President, the National Assembly, the government, the Constitutional Court by using violence or under the threat of its use to commit actions within their powers. Such actions are punishable by imprisonment for a term of three to 15 years.
Announcing this at the ongoing opposition rally, member of the ARF "Dashnaktsutyun" Gegham Manukyan stressed that "Pashinyan's" pocket investigative bodies "dared to open a criminal case against a person who stood at the origins of the national liberation struggle and was one of the initiators of the" Karabakh "Committee. Manukyan expressed regret that the investigating authorities are so dirty, and offered them to work through SMS messages.