Criminal Case Initiated for Publications Disgracing the Honor and Dignity of Ter-Petrosyan and Kocharyan: NSS

The National Security Service of Armenia has issued a statement informing that data has been received regarding the distribution of calls for terrorism through fake user accounts. The statement particularly notes, "The NSS, committed to protecting citizens' fundamental constitutional rights from internal and external threats, views acts that propagate extreme intolerance and hatred towards representatives of the nation and its specific groups—undermining trust and respect—as an exceptional danger to national security. In this regard, the NSS is keeping the information space and media publications under continuous monitoring, regardless of whether their authors are politically oppositional or pro-government. Through operational and investigative measures undertaken within the scope of its legally assigned functions, the NSS has obtained factual data that three users of several individual pages created under fictitious or real names on the social network 'www.facebook.com' publicly engaged in actions aimed at humiliating national dignity from November 2019 to February 2020. They also published public calls for terrorism, propagating violent actions against former and current political and public figures, as well as social groups, which has created a real threat to their execution.

While committing these acts, the individuals suspected of committing an offense made offensive and derogatory statements regarding the absolute values of the Armenian people—the Armenian language and the army. They published caricatures that dishonored the honor and dignity of both the Armenian government and high-ranking officials of the Republic of Artsakh, as well as the first and second Presidents of the Republic of Armenia, alongside calls for violence. A criminal case has been initiated at the NSS Investigative Department concerning the above-mentioned incidents, according to relevant articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. The pre-investigation body is taking appropriate measures to clarify the network of relationships of these users, uncover other criminal incidents, and neutralize potential threats."