Gharib Babayan Not Detained: Details

Gharib Babayan, the individual who shared a video of people singing in Azerbaijani about Karabakh in Republic Square, Yerevan, was not detained. The court rejected the request for his detention, and he was released. This was reported by Babayan's lawyer, David Hovhannisyan.

According to the lawyer, administrative supervision has been imposed on him, limiting his right to speak publicly.

As previously reported, on January 30, a video surfaced online in which a group of people sang in Azerbaijani about Karabakh in Republic Square, Yerevan. The next day, the National Security Service (NSS) announced that the singers are citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and on February 1, a report on the apparent crime was submitted to the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia.

The Investigative Committee clarified that Gharib Babayan published the video on the Facebook page of the 'Independent Center for Strategic Studies' that he manages, and that he had written comments distorting the essence of the video, thereby inciting hatred, intolerance, and animosity against the authorities of Armenia and law enforcement officials.

A public criminal prosecution was initiated against Babayan. He had been arrested, and a motion was filed in court to use detention as a preventive measure against him.

It should be noted that lawyer Ruben Melikyan reported that 70-year-old Gharib Babayan is from Artsakh, he is a scholar and an organizer of education.

As a reminder, as a result of complex operational-investigative measures carried out by the NSS, factual data has been obtained indicating that the widely circulated video on the internet was posted by G. B., the head of the 'Independent Center for Strategic Research' NGO, on the same-named Facebook account, and G. B. used information and communication technologies to incite hatred and intolerance towards an individual or group of individuals, under the conditions of political and social circumstances, through public speech.