ArmInfo. Freedom House is concerned with the criminal case opened against a Facebook user who insulted Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan in a comment. This is stated in a statement by the Freedom House human rights organization on Twitter.
" Only two months ago the Parliament criminalized "serious insults" against government officials, signifying a clear degradation of democratic norms including freedom of expression," Freedom House noted.
Days earlier, it became known that a criminal case was opened in the RA police for an insulting comment under the photo of Nikol Pashinyan on Facebook.
"A criminal case has been initiated under Article 137.1 (inflicting a grave insult on a person in connection with his public activities). Law enforcement agencies are taking measures to establish the identity of the author of the commentary," the RA Police press service said.
To recall, the National Assembly of the previous convocation in the last days of its work adopted a law criminalizing obscene words and swearing. Article 137.1 "grave insult" has been added to the Criminal Code, which provides for a penalty of up to 3 million drams or imprisonment for up to three months.