Court Ruling in Case of 'Diana Harutyunyan' Spreading Fake News in Name of Nikol Pashinyan

Sergey Mkrtchyan has been sentenced to 3 years and 6 months of imprisonment by court ruling. As it is known, on January 3, 2020, a post was made on the Facebook page 'Diana Harutyunyan' claiming that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had congratulated the US President regarding an operation against a senior Iranian military officer. This fake news was also disseminated by Azerbaijani and Iranian media.

The National Security Service (NSS) reported that the dissemination of such content with the intent to incite national, racial, and religious enmity has caused significant harm to the national security interests of the Republic of Armenia.

As a result of operational investigative measures conducted by the NSS, the identity of the individual managing the fake 'Diana Harutyunyan' Facebook page was established. He was taken in for questioning and explained his actions, as mentioned in the communication.

A criminal case has been initiated in the NSS investigative department due to the apparent crime, and a pre-investigation is underway. The individual managing the fake 'Diana Harutyunyan' Facebook page has been held in custody.

Who is he? According to information obtained by ArmLur.am, he is Sergey Roberti Mkrtchyan, against whom the NSS has filed charges for unlawfully having taken possession of computer information belonging to the Facebook.com site under the name 'Diana Harutyunyan' without permission and publicly performing actions via the internet aimed at inciting national enmity between the peoples of the Republic of Armenia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.