The Court of First Instance extended the four-month pre-trial detention of Mushegh Shushanyan (a distinguished jurist, attorney and human rights advocate who is also a disabled war veteran) for another two months for allegedly using offensive language in a post on social media criticizing the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

It was justifiably expected that the Court should have protected Mr. Shushanyan’s right of Freedom of Speech, as dictated by the European Convention on Human Rights and other international standards, regardless how offensive was that language and especially considering that the post was a criticism of political nature.

However, the Court, with wrongfull motive of paying tribute to the ruling power, has succumbed to committing the illegal act of appeasing the Prime Minister by unjustifiably and illegally incarcerating Mr. Shushanyan.

By imprisoning Mr. Shushanyan, the Court is not only complicit in stifling Freedom of Speech by silencing all attempts to criticize the government, but it is also directly responsible for the Political Persecution that Mr. Shushanyan is being subjected to, and since Mr. Shushanyan is presently incarcerated under the pretext of politically motivated pre-trial detention, then he is also considered a classic case of a Political Prisoner.

The National Democratic Alliance condemns the Political Persecution of Mushegh Shushanyan and his imprisonment as a result of his expression of free speech has added one more person to the list of Political Prisoners in Armenia. We call on all international bodies and friendly countries that support the democratization of Armenia to take Mr. Shushanyan’s case into consideration and act accordingly in their dealings with the current authorities of Armenia.

Council of National Democratic Alliance