Lawyer urges Armenian citizens to be careful about their social media  posts

ArmInfo. Lawyer Marine Farmanyan has called on Armenian citizens to be careful about their social media posts. "The day has just started, and two defendants have already come to the Bar Association for a free consultation over a Facebook comment.  People are being persecuted for their words and  opinions. The case of one of the defendants is already in court,  and  the other is in the investigative department. The investigative  department and the prosecutor's office are exclusively engaged in the  "sacred mission" of censoring and punishing comments deemed  unfavorable to the authorities," Farmanyan emphasized.

She added that individuals previously vested with power and with an  audience are being targeted under Article 422 (seizure of power,  violation of territorial integrity, or violent overthrow of the  constitutional order), while ordinary citizens are prosecuted under  Article 330 (public calls for violence, its justification, or  propaganda) of the RA Criminal Code.

"Perhaps they want to bring Armenian society to such a level of  freedom where the expression 'thank you, Mr. Aliyev' becomes not only  a characteristic mark of the authorities' behavior, but also the only  possible 'freedom of expression' allowed for the society," the lawyer  emphasized.