Head of "Civic Consciousness" NGO detained for indecent statement  against member of Bright Armenia

ArmInfo.The Armenian police used disproportionate force during the arrest of chairman of the "Civic Consciousness" NGO Narek Samsonyan.

It is noteworthy that Samsonyan himself said on his Facebook page  yesterday that he had been summoned to the RA police to testify in  connection with an indecent statement he made to member of the board  of the Bright Armenia party  David Khazhakyan. And the latter filed  a complaint against him to the RA Police.

As former ombudsman of Artsakh, human rights activist Ruben Melikyan  said on his Facebook page, Samsonyan was detained by police in the  yard of his own house with the use of disproportionate force.   According to him, he was taken to the Nor-Nork Police Department.

According to media reports, 10-15 policemen were involved in the  arrest of Samsonyan, who was on his way to the police station. There  were 5 police cars at the scene. The police used brutal force to  detain the chairman of the NGO, and this is in the case that he did  not offer any resistance.

On July 30, the "Civil Contract" ruling force adopted a scandalous  law criminalizing obscene language. A new article (137.1) has been  added to the Criminal Code, which is entitled "Gross insult".  According to the bill, for gross insults to a person, that is,  swearing or insulting his/her dignity in an extremely indecent way, a  fine of 100 thousand to 0.5 million drams is envisaged. If the abuse  was public, or was expressed on the Internet, or was conditioned by  the public activities of the person, the fine is envisaged from 0.5  million to 1 million drams. And if this happened in relation to the  same person and periodically, then as a punishment a fine of 1-3  million drams or arrest for a period of one to three months is  envisaged.

Public activity in this case is journalistic, publicistic activity,  performance of official duties, government service, public or  political activity. That is, the punishment will be more severe if  the insult is directed at a politician, journalist or government  official.

On December 12, the RA General Prosecutor's Office reported that 166  cases were initiated under the new Article 137.1 of the RA Criminal  Code, of which 154 are under investigation, and 5 are sent to court  with indictments, and are at the trial stage. In general, 14 people  have already been brought to criminal responsibility in criminal  cases under Article 137.1 of the RA Criminal Code.