Criminal Case Initiated Over Offensive Post Under Nikol Pashinyan’s Photo Without 'Victim' Complaint

A criminal case has been initiated regarding the posting of an offensive comment under Nikol Pashinyan's photo, based on point 2 of part 2 of Article 137.1 of the RA Criminal Code, which pertains to causing serious insult due to an individual's public activity. This was reported in an interview with 'Pastinfo' by the Public Relations and Media Department of the RA Police, adding that the criminal case has been forwarded to the investigative body.

It should be noted that law enforcement agencies recorded the incident of an offensive comment under Pashinyan's photo as a result of monitoring, without receiving a complaint from the alleged victim. Police were conducting operations to locate Hrant Avetisyan, who left the offensive comment under Pashinyan's photo.

When we inquired with the police regarding whether he has been located, they responded that measures to find him are ongoing. Notably, it is significant that the police have initiated a criminal case based on the amendments recently made to the RA Criminal Code implementing Article 137.1, without a complaint or report of the crime from the alleged 'victim' Nikol Pashinyan. However, this is a case of private accusation, and a complaint from the aggrieved party is necessary to initiate proceedings under the specified article.

According to Article 183 of the RA Criminal Procedure Code, criminal cases under Article 137.1 can only be initiated based on the complaint of the victim. The entire rationale is that any person, including law enforcement, has no right to take offense on behalf of another person; for example, a certain individual may not consider an insult as offensive, believing that the assessment is justified and specific. In this case, it turns out that the mentioned post was not offensive to Nikol Pashinyan, but law enforcement was offended on his behalf.