Armenian expert condemns seizure of opposition media equipment

An Armenian constitutional law expert has accused the country’s authorities of using law-enforcement agencies to shut down an opposition media outlet, describing the move as an unprecedented development of the past seven years.

Gohar Meloyan, head of the International Center on Development of Parliamentarism NGO, said the police search of AntiFake's newsroom and the seizure of its equipment had “no criminal-procedural purpose” and amounted to the deliberate dismantling of a critical media platform.

Meloyan argued that the confiscated devices had “no evidentiary value” in the hooliganism case against Imnemnimi podcast co-hosts Vazgen Saghatelyan and Narek Samsonyan. She stressed that the Imnemnimi episodes at the center of the inquiry are available on YouTube and that any relevant materials are already accessible in published videos.

“This action is meaningless from the perspective of an investigation,” she said, adding that the real intent appeared to be the suppression of the widely viewed opposition shows Ghazaryan vs Ghazaryan and AntiFake Conversations.