Court arrests administrator of Facebook group "Be Brave, Armenia"

An administrator of the Facebook group "Be Brave, Armenia Open Society" became a suspect under the clause on inciting racial, national or religious hostility, the National Security Service of Armenia (NSS) reports today.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 6, an author of the Facebook group "Be Brave, Armenia Open Society" was detained after Nikol Pashinyan had issued instructions to fight fake news.

The court granted an investigators' request and arrested the administrator of the Facebook group "Be Brave, Armenia" on April 9. The arrested person is suspected under the article of the Armenian Criminal Code on inciting racial, national or religious hatred using media, which provides for punishment of three-six years of imprisonment, officials from the Armenian NSS informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent without disclosing the term of the arrest.

Let us remind you that on April 4, on the eve of the Facebook group administrator's detention, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan instructed the director of the Armenian NSS to "give a tough response to the fake news." According to the Armenian Prime Minister, authors of such news manipulate public opinion, "and this is a matter of national security." Members of Armenian NGOs state that such an instruction does not correspond to the prerogatives of the secret services and is directed against attempts to manipulate public opinion that are natural for a democratic society.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 10, 2019 at 11:27 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.