Your trusted source

New charges have been levelled against Narek Samsonyan, head of the Civic Consciousness NGO and founder of AntiFake.am website, for allegedly voicing “grave insults”, Pastinfo reported on Tuesday.

The matter concerns his comments about Nikol Pashinyan during a program, which were found deeply offensive by the law enforcement agencies.

Narek Samsonyan told Pastinfo that the criminal case was initiated based on a report filed by an anonymous source, following the common practice of 1930s.

The Civic Consciousness head noted that he had not been summoned for questioning yet and had just received a copy of the decision to prosecute him. During the preparation of the reports, Samsonyan provided explanations to the police.

He stated that he did not use profanity in his comments, calling the report “ridiculous”. He described the criminal proceedings against him as a tool of political persecution.

Pastinfo cited Article 177 (Clause 7) of Armenia’s Criminal Procedure Code prohibiting the launch of criminal proceedings on the basis of anonymous reports.

“A letter, a statement or other anonymous report about crime, unsigned or with false signature or written on behalf of fictitious person, cannot be a reason for initiation of criminal prosecution,” reads the article.