A fake news website has once again targeted Armenia, this time falsely accusing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s wife Anna Hakobyan of embezzling $3,4 million from the City of Smile charitable organization.
The accusations have been debunked by France 24.
The French news agency said that the Euleaks website, a known fake news generator, used the identities of France 24 journalists in its fake story.
According to France 24, domain data shows that the website was opened on August 12, a day before the fake story was published.
France 24 even contacted Transparency International’s Armenia branch regarding the accusations, which indicated that it had "no information to corroborate the allegations of corruption presented in this article."
The website attributed the accusations to lawyer Sergey Harutyunyan, who has since issued a statement saying he has never made such accusations presented in the article.
France 24 concluded that the fake news is part of an ongoing disinformation campaign targeting Armenia, similar to the most recent fake article about alleged French nuclear waste storage, which has been denied by authorities.
