Individual Arrested for Inciting Violence Against Artsakh Residents and Politicians on Social Media

On November 13, 2020, a video message was posted on the page of a user on the social media platform Facebook, where an individual sitting in the front left seat of a car made public calls for violence against representatives of certain political forces as well as Artsakh residents, accompanied by offensive remarks directed at them. This information was reported by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Armenia.

The video message was recorded as part of the ongoing monitoring of media and social networks conducted by the Prosecutor General's Office. Additionally, several applications were addressed to the Prosecutor General, including one from Naira Zohrabyan, the Chair of the Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs of the National Assembly of Armenia.

Through the Yerevan City Prosecutor's Office, these materials were immediately forwarded to the Yerevan Directorate of the Armenian Police with instructions to prepare relevant materials in accordance with Articles 180 and 181 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Armenia.

As a result, taking into account that the prepared materials contained evidence of public calls for violence against individuals based on political and other views, a criminal case was initiated on December 2 at the Yerevan Police Investigation Department under part 1 of Article 226.2 of the Criminal Code of Armenia.

The criminal case was sent to the Yerevan Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Armenia for further investigation. During the investigation, the individual suspected of inciting violence and making calls that justify violence and emphasize hatred was arrested.

The investigation is ongoing. The Prosecutor's Office calls on citizens, especially in the context of the current public tensions in the country, to refrain from actions that could lead to public division, using violence as a means to affect social relations, and from unacceptable and highly dangerous behaviors that aim to label, insult, and instill hatred towards a certain segment of the population. Such phenomena will receive strict legal evaluations.