Today National Assembly continued the discussion of the report on the activity of the Prosecutor’s Office during 2023.

During the exchange of ideas the Deputies addressed issues recorded by the Prosecutor’s Office, which mainly referred to the delayed justice, works implemented by the Prosecutor General’s Office in the scope of its powers aimed at the its solution as well as fight against illegal drug circulation and hate speech.

In her speech Anna Vardapetyan, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia referred to the questions regarding hate speech, incitement to violence, hooliganism and excessive use of force and mentioned, “On Friday, during the briefing one of the journalists asked. I would like to apologize, but I have to quote it verbatim. “Is it permitted to spit”? “No, it is not permitted”, I directly explained to the journalist, “It is not permitted”. The fact is that, not everything is subject to criminal punishment, but are we the society to be talked only through Criminal Code? During the question and answer section, it was evident for me that all of you are worried about the external security issues. Those questions were addressed to me as well. I am sure that all of you want to see our motherland safe, but is it possible to solve security issues within the country if we are constantly talking to each other using hate speech? The answer is an unequivocal— no”.

Referring to the questions on the hate speech, the RA Prosecutor General highlighted that the political speech delivered from the National Assembly affects that quality of speech of the society. “These are not mere words. It is evident from each criminal case, from the testimonies taken under each criminal case, from the indictment drawn up under each criminal case. People follow our speech, your voters follow your speech. You are a behavioral model for them, thus I am sure that each of us must have self-control and raise issues without personal insults. All the discussed issues, including all the publications cited by Mrs. Tovmasyan already constitute subject of examination in the Prosecutor’s Office. We believe that this is the way to dialogue. We also have another option— we can get together every year and discuss how many criminal proceedings there are on the hate speech, to whom they are addressed and count who has more and who has less: I am sure that no one will win. I would also like to assure that the law enforcement system shall initiate proceedings in case there is a corpus delicti, shall undertake necessary actions, shall initiate criminal prosecution in case there are grounds and shall submit the case to the court regardless the fact who used hate speech or against whom it was used”, highlighted Anna Vardapetyan.

Pursuant to “Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly” Constitutional law the annual report on the activity of the Prosecutor’s Office was admitted for information.