Karen Bekaryan Has Never Had Any Connection with Facebook Fake Accounts, Lawyer Gor Mikaelyan Says

Dear journalists, I would like to inform you that my client Karen Bekaryan is currently detained in connection with a well-known case. This was stated by Gor Mikaelyan, the lawyer of Karen Bekaryan, co-founder of the ‘Karyak Media’, on his Facebook page.

He specifically noted, “A complaint regarding the legality of the detention has been filed to the first instance court of general jurisdiction in Yerevan last night. I declare that my client, Karen Bekaryan, co-founder of ‘Karyak Media’, has never had any connection with any Facebook fake account, and if there is anything to be said, he always does it openly without hiding behind any fake profile.”

Regarding the legal side of the acts attributed to him, there are serious issues in terms of legal certainty regarding some of the articles of the Criminal Code that served as the basis for his detention, under which it is altogether impossible to deprive Karen Bekaryan of his freedom.

Earlier, it was reported that Ara Saghatelyan, Karen Bekaryan, and Mher Avagyan, who were taken into custody by the National Security Service (NSS) the previous day, have been arrested. They are suspected of committing acts provided for by Article 226 (inciting national, racial, or religious hatred), Article 226.2 (public calls for violence, publicly justifying or promoting violence), and Article 307.4 (violating the rules regarding the publication or dissemination of information during a state of war) of the Criminal Code.