Criminal proceedings initiated based on statement addressed to Garegin II
Criminal proceedings have been initiated regarding the incident in Garni, specifically related to a statement addressed to the Catholicos of All Armenians, Garegin II. The information was confirmed by the RA Prosecutor General’s Office.
The incident occurred on December 28 in the courtyard of the Garni Church, where several citizens were attending a liturgy. Among them was the RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. During the event, a journalist from the pro-government website Civic.am asked the attendees, “What needs to happen for Ktrich Nersisyan to leave?”, to which one of the attendees responded with a statement containing violence.
On December 29, it became known that the Prosecutor’s Office was examining the incident to determine the presence of a corpus delicti. On January 7, criminal proceedings were initiated under Article 330, Part 2, Point 3 of the Criminal Code: public calls for violence using mass media or information and communication technologies. A preliminary investigation is currently underway.
According to media reports, the author of the mentioned statement is Edvard Stepanyan, who works in the communal services operating under the Garni Municipality and is involved in water meter maintenance.