Armenian court hears activist’s lawsuit against Pashinyan

By Hayk Ghazaryan

A Yerevan court has held its first hearing in a defamation lawsuit filed by activist Arthur Osipyan against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, over a confrontation that took place during Armenia’s parliamentary election campaign in May.

Osipyan is seeking a public apology and retraction of insults made by Pashinyan on May 18, when he approached the prime minister during a ruling Civil Contract party campaign event in Yerevan’s Arabkir district, three weeks before the June 7 election.

Osipyan, a political activist from Nagorno-Karabakh, questioned Pashinyan about the former Karabakh authorities, the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group and other issues. The exchange became heated. Pashinyan called him a “thug,” “scum,” “lackey,” and a “thieving animal,” while accusing him of promoting Azerbaijani narratives.

Pashinyan also said the Karabakh issue was closed and demanded that Osipyan explain why he was still alive, according to Osipyan’s court filing.

The activist is asking the court to order Pashinyan to apologize and retract the statements through the prime minister’s official Facebook page.

The lawsuit follows Osipyan’s arrest after the May 18 confrontation. He faces criminal charges of obstructing a campaign event and hooliganism. Prosecutors have also charged him with making public calls for violence in a social media post published on March 22.

Osipyan and his lawyer, Davit Hovhannisyan, reject the accusations. Hovhannisyan says the March post did not prompt authorities to question Osipyan for two months and that his arrest came only after he publicly challenged Pashinyan.

A court ordered Osipyan held in pretrial detention on May 21. He responded with a hunger strike, demanding that Pashinyan publicly apologize for calling him and other displaced Karabakh Armenians “those who fled.” Osipyan spent about 25 days in Yerevan’s Nubarashen penitentiary before a supervising prosecutor lifted his detention on June 10, citing personal guarantees submitted by civil society representatives.

In a separate hearing in the criminal case on Sept. 16, a Yerevan court ordered investigators to return Osipyan’s passport, cash and other personal belongings seized during a search. It allowed authorities to keep his phone and handwritten notes, which prosecutors say are evidence.

Osipyan has described the criminal case against him as fabricated and politically motivated. He has also asked prosecutors to investigate what he described as Pashinyan’s threats during their May confrontation. Prosecutors declined to open a case, concluding that the prime minister’s remarks were general conversational statements.