ArmInfo. Armenia continues to increasingly depart from democratic principles and minimum standards of the rule of law. Lawyer Ruben Melikyan stated this in an interview with journalists outside the courthouse where the first hearing of the case against "Imnemnimi" podcast hosts Vazgen Saghatelyan and Narek Samsonyan is underway.
He noted that today's selective justice system, where some are tried and others left free, demonstrates the direction the country is heading. "We hope that at least the judiciary will respect human rights principles in this situation," Melikyan emphasized.
The lawyer announced that during today's hearing, the prosecutor will read the indictment and the issue of pretrial detention will also be discussed.
As a reminder, Vazgen Saghatelyan and Narek Samsonyan were detained on November 13 in Yerevan. Subsequently, by court order, they were remanded in custody for two months. That same day, the AntiFake.am office was searched, and all equipment was confiscated. The bloggers were detained on the basis of a complaint filed by Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan for using obscene language. Notably, this complaint followed Simonyan's initial insult to the podcast hosts in a post on his Facebook page, after which they responded.
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