TikTok star Hayk Yegyan was arrested for insulting Pashinyan. Lawyer Roman Yeritsyan announced this live on his Facebook page, captioning his “live broadcast”: “About TikTok user ‘Ayvazovsky’.”
According to him, the chairman of a certain party filed a complaint and noted that he could become the country’s prime minister tomorrow, and it is unacceptable for him to insult the prime minister.
“The Criminal Investigation Department immediately arrested the citizen and opened a criminal case under Parts 2 and 3 of Article 297 of the Criminal Code. The citizen has been in pretrial detention for two days now, and tomorrow it will become clear what position the Investigative Committee will take on this moderately serious offense, whether it will present the citizen for pretrial detention, and what approach the court will take. “I have committed to defending the interests of this citizen, and I believe this also constitutes disregard for the well-known Constitutional Court ruling that declared unconstitutional the article of the Criminal Code that provides for liability for grave insults to public officials,” the lawyer noted.
According to him, by acting in this way, the Investigative Committee is exposing citizens to political and criminal prosecution. “In short, Hayk Yeghyan can be unconditionally added to the list of individuals subject to political persecution, and this should be publicly discussed and voiced.
I am confident that Hayk Yeghyan should be considered a political prisoner, despite his status as an arrested person, because he is effectively being prosecuted simply for the harsh and crude expression of his political views,” Yeritsyan emphasized.
He stated that the Vardenis Investigative Department is also handling the case. “Tomorrow will determine whether the citizen will be brought to court for detention for this alleged moderately serious act and what his position will be in court.”