Five Human Rights Defenders Initiative to undertake Edgar Ghazaryan`s  defense

ArmInfo.The criminal prosecution of opposition figure Edgar Ghazaryan is an effort to  introduce new unlawful methods to silence critical statements that  are not prohibited by traditional democratic norms, as noted in the  statement of the Five Human Rights Defenders Initiative - Arsen  Babayan, Sergey Harutyunyan, Varazdat Harutyunyan, Vahan Hovhannisyan  and Ruben Melikyan.

If such an attempt is successful, human rights defenders believe that  these methods will be used against almost anyone with opposing views.   In this regard, the group of human rights defenders deems it crucial  to stop this attempt through public awareness, legal arguments and  other lawful means.

"Based on the above, we have decided, with Edgar Ghazaryan's  suggestion and consent, to take on his defense as a team," the  Initiative said in a statement.  Recall that the day before, Edgar  Ghazaryan, a former Armenian Ambassador to Poland and public figure,  was summoned to the Investigative Committee, where he was informed of  the accusation of insulting judges in his public speech.