The ruling My Step faction of the National Assembly will be making amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia which envisage punishments for violating the rules for publication and dissemination of information during martial law. The bill for amendments has not been posted on the official website of the National Assembly yet, but the parliamentary sources of Factor.am have transmitted the document authored by the My Step parliamentary faction.
The following are the amendments to be made to the Criminal Code:
“Article 307.4 Violating the rules for publication or dissemination of information during martial law
- Where the elements of the crime provided for by Article 307.5 of this Code are missing, violating the rules for publication or dissemination of information during the legal regime of martial law which has caused significant damage to the rights or lawful interests of persons or organizations or to the lawful interests of the society or the State, shall be punished with a fine in the amount of two thousand-fold to three thousand-fold of the minimum salary, or with imprisonment for a term of maximum three years, by depriving of the right to hold certain positions or to be involved in certain activities for a term of maximum three years or without that.
- Where the elements of the crime provided for by Article 307.5 of this Code are missing, committing the same act after application of an administrative penalty prescribed in part 5 or 6 of Article 182.5 of the Code of the Republic of Armenia on Administrative Offenses or deliberately failing to remove a publication after application of an administrative penalty for the act prescribed by part 7 of Article 182.5 of the Code of the Republic of Armenia on Administrative Offenses, shall be punished with a fine in the amount of one thousand-fold to two thousand-fold of the minimum salary, or by depriving of the right to hold certain positions or to be involved in certain activities for a term of two to five years, or with imprisonment for a term of maximum one year.
Article 307.5 Propaganda targeted against defensibility of the state or state security during the legal regime of martial law
- Propaganda targeted against defensibility of the state or state security during the legal regime of martial law shall be punished with a fine in the amount of two thousand-fold to three thousand-fold of the minimum salary, or by depriving of the right to hold certain positions or to be involved in certain activities for a term of two to seven years, or with imprisonment for a term of one to five years.
- The act provided for by part 1 of this Article which has caused significant damage to the rights or lawful interests of persons or organizations or to the lawful interests of the society or the State, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of four to eight years, by depriving of the right to hold certain positions or to be involved in certain activities for a term of maximum three years or without that.”
Factor.am asked member of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the National Assembly, deputy of the My Step faction Suren Grigoryan to comment on the amendments to be made to the Criminal Code. In regard to the bill, Grigoryan said the following: “I neither confirm nor refute the fact that the bill is being considered. If a bill is presented to the public, it will be put into circulation. I don’t deem it necessary to address the issue of whether the bill is being considered or is not being considered through the Rules of Procedure.”
According to the information provided to Factor.am, the bill will be considered during the session to be convened by the Council of the National Assembly on Monday.