On August 17, NA MP Edmon Marukyan put the draft law on “Making Amendments in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia” into circulation, which suggests criminalizing any public announcement or call that are made against the sovereignty or territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia.
Aravot.am talked on this to NA Republican faction MP, also a member of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, Levon Martirosyan. He noted that he considers it right to a responsibility should be laid against those who are talking against the fundamental values, however, he is not sure that it should be a criminal liability. “Generally, the logic is clear that making statements against the territorial integrity, sovereignty and fundamental and invariable provisions of the peace should be punished, but I am not sure that the criminal liability is the most precise responsibility in this regard. Other types of responsibilities can be defined, for example, an administrative fine and so on.” Levon Martirosyan does not rule out the possibility that there might also arise problems with freedom of expression. As an example, he cited the cases of “Perinçek v. Switzerland” of the European Court of Human Rights
He stressed that if the draft law is passed, the court will examine each case individually and make individual decisions. “It is topical in the sense that someone and made some kind of a statement, but if we should present drafts associated with non-important figures and non-important statements, in this respect, I do not think that it is topical, the issue should be viewed in a broad way. If there is indeed a problem, then it should be addressed. At this point, I cannot say that this problem was so topical that it was urgent to introduce such a draft law,” he said. Note that the Chairman of CIS Youth Union, Andranik Nikoghosyan, had announced that Armenia should join Russia. NA MP Edmon Marukyan has applied to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Galust Sahakyan, to declare the decision on awarding the Chairman of the CIS Youth Union, Andranik Nikoghosyan, canceled. But Galust Sahakyan has announced that there is no such a procedure and he would try to deprive Andranik Nikoghosyan of the award if it were given for his political and ideological activities.
Ami CHICHAKYAN
