Referring to the accusation presented to Bishop Ter Mkrtich Proshyan, leader of Aragatsotn Diocese, the Armenian National Congress, in particular, noted that it was presented by an article of the Criminal Code, which was not in force at the time of the alleged crime, i.e. in 2021, because the new edition of the Criminal Code containing the aforementioned article entered into force in 2022. on July 1. Therefore, the assessment of the act attributable to 2021 under the new edition of the Criminal Code is a gross violation of Article 72 of the RA Constitution.
And indeed, Article 163 of the old code criminalized (Part 2) only "Forcing to participate in legal gatherings by using violence or threatening to use it". Regarding the alleged act, Daniel Ioannisyan's crime report does not contain any information about violence or the threat of violence. Therefore, it could not serve as a basis for filing the accusation.
Meanwhile, the alleged act that served as the basis of the accusation, that is (Part 3 of Article 236 of the new Criminal Code) forcing to participate in the gathering, "which was carried out by using official or official powers or the influence caused by them", was criminalized only by the new edition of the Criminal Code, therefore, in 2021 it was not considered a crime and could not serve as a basis for initiating a criminal case.
Thus, it turns out that by filing accusations against Bishop Fr. Mkrtich Proshyan and the persons connected with him, the authorities grossly violated Article 72 of the RA Constitution, and Daniel Ioannisyan (who accused the Congress of allegedly not being able to use the Arlis system) assumed not only the role of "the main whistle-blower of the authorities", but also of misinforming our public and justifying the illegalities of the authorities. the role of the debtor.
