Opposition figure Artur Danielyan remanded for two months over Facebook posts

By Siranush Adamyan

Armenian opposition figure Artur Danielyan was remanded in custody for two months late Wednesday over Facebook posts, his lawyer Tigran Atanesyan said.

Danielyan, founder of the Adekvad party and a frequent critic of the government, was arrested earlier that day.

Armenia’s Investigative Committee said the case concerned alleged hooliganism committed using information or communication technologies.

Atanesyan said investigators had added several counts to the hooliganism charge, all relating to Facebook posts. He said Danielyan also faced an additional charge over a post allegedly discrediting the National Security Service.

On Wednesday morning, Danielyan wrote on Facebook that he had been summoned to the Investigative Committee and expected to be charged.

In an October 6 Facebook post, Danielyan referred to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as a “scumbag,” writing: “The scumbag said today: ‘If we say, give us one of the prisoners so we can give you your soldier, tomorrow one of our soldiers might cross over — who would we give them then?’”

Pashinyan had told Infocom that returning soldiers who cross the border should be handled separately from efforts to secure the release of Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan. He argued that making such returns conditional on prisoner exchanges could complicate the return of Armenian soldiers in similar circumstances. He added that the Azerbaijani soldier detained over an alleged shooting in southern Armenia would face legal proceedings and serve any resulting sentence in Armenia, at least initially.

Danielyan has been arrested before, including in 2020 following a physical altercation with Alen Simonyan, then deputy speaker of parliament.