Armenian woman fined for Facebook post, declared wanted after non-payment

Panorama

A Gyumri-born woman, Gohar Kirakosyan, says she was threatened with imprisonment after authorities informed her she was on a wanted list for failing to pay a court-ordered fine over a Facebook post.

Kirakosyan told Panorama.am that on September 26, while applying for a social card at the Interior Ministry’s passport office, officials summoned police, who escorted her to the Investigation Department. There, she was told she had been wanted since February 2024 for failure to pay a 748,000-dram (about $1,900) fine imposed in 2023. The fine stemmed from a 2022 Facebook post deemed as “a call for violence” against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Police then took her to the Probation Service, where she was instructed to pay the amount by September 30 or face renewed court proceedings that could result in detention. Kirakosyan says she cannot pay, noting she has no job, property or bank accounts.

The 49-year-old, whose brother was killed in the first Artsakh war, has lived in rented housing in Yerevan for three decades with her mother and sister. She had been working in Russia until this summer, when she returned to Armenia to care for her ill mother.

Her Facebook page, active for 13 years, was shut down nearly two years ago. Kirakosyan calls the case politically motivated, saying, “We live in a disgraceful country. This is a terrible dictatorship. They silence all opposition voices. What we have is liberal fascism.”