PACE concerned over Armenian authorities` actions against political  opponent 

ArmInfo.The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) yesterday unanimously adopted a  report prepared by its monitoring commission on the fulfillment of the obligations undertaken by the Republic of Armenia. "Although the report generally positively assesses Armenia's fulfillment of its obligations, there is special mention of the criminal case initiated against me in May 2022," Avetik Chalabyan, coordinator of the  "Hayakve" initiative, writes on his Facebook page.

In particular, the report, according to the politician, expressed  deep concern that the RA authorities used Article 236 of the RA  Criminal Code to punish him politically, without actually having a  sufficient legal basis for this.

The report also states that, according to European guidelines on  freedom of peaceful assembly, financial incentives to participate in  assemblies cannot be criminalized, and the application of criminal  penalties in this case is inappropriate.

"In this regard, our defense has long been arguing that Article 236  of the Criminal Code, under which the current authorities are trying  to punish me, is unconstitutional and illegal. Back in 2022, in  August, a corresponding petition was submitted to the court of first  instance with a request to appeal to the Constitutional Court of the  Republic of Armenia in order to verify the compliance of this article  with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, but this court,  which was clearly opposed to me from the very beginning, rejected  this petition," he states. 

This ill-fated article, Chalabyan notes, although it was the first in  Armenia that was applied to me, has now become an insult to various  opposition figures, in particular, member of the Supreme Body of the  ARF Gerasima Vardanyan is accused under the same article.

"Moreover, this article is applied arbitrarily and biasedly, in  particular, during the elections to the Council of Elders of Yerevan,  there are cases when financial incentives were openly offered on  social networks for participation in rallies of a candidate for  power, but the authorities did not initiate a single criminal case on  this reason, and no one has yet been brought to justice," he notes.

In addition, the Helsinki Committee of Armenia and the Armenian  Center for Political Rights in their joint report called on the RA  government at the beginning of the year to apply to the Venice  Commission for an expert opinion on this article of the Criminal  Code. The PACE co-rapporteurs also confirm that the need for such a  conclusion exists. Thus, the issue is now in the hands of the current  authorities of the Republic of Armenia, on whose initiative the  National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia introduced this actual  anti- constitutional change to the Criminal Code of the Republic of  Armenia in June 2022.

"For our part, we will ensure that the Constitutional Court of the  Republic of Armenia ultimately considers the constitutionality of  this article," summarizes Avetik Chalabyan.

The case against Chalabyan was opened in May 2022, accusing him of  bribing citizens to participate in opposition rallies. Then he spent  three months under arrest, then was released from the pre-trial  detention center on bail. In December 2023, the court decided to  imprison Avetik Chalabyan for a period of one year 11 months and 5  days. In addition, the court also prohibited him from participating  in meetings and other public events, as well as changing his place of  residence without the consent of the competent authority supervising  his behavior.