By Srianush Adamyan
A Yerevan court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by Armenia’s Security Council Secretary Alen Simonyan against opposition lawmaker Edgar Ghazaryan over allegations of corruption involving Simonyan and his family.
The ruling was issued on October 14 by Judge Syuzanna Ulikhanyan of the Yerevan Civil Court of First Instance, according to Armenia’s Datalex judicial information system.
Simonyan, a senior member of the ruling Civil Contract party, was speaker of the National Assembly when he filed the lawsuit. He was appointed secretary of the Security Council on August 13, following Armenia’s June 2026 parliamentary elections.
Ghazaryan is now a member of parliament representing the opposition Strong Armenia faction.
The lawsuit concerned remarks Ghazaryan made in a video discussion titled Family Corruption, published on March 9, 2026, by Armenian news outlet 168.am.
Simonyan demanded that Ghazaryan publicly retract statements he considered defamatory and pay 2 million Armenian drams ($5,500) in compensation.
According to Datalex, Simonyan also demanded that Ghazaryan publish a retraction on his Facebook page for at least five working days under the headline: “I, Edgar Ghazaryan, have defamed Alen Simonyan.”
In addition, Simonyan sought 560,000 drams ($1,534) in legal expenses, including 480,000 drams ($1,315) in attorney fees and 80,000 drams ($219) in state fees.
The court rejected the lawsuit in full.
In a Facebook post on October 18, Ghazaryan said the court had also ordered Simonyan to pay him 100,000 drams ($275) in legal fees.
What Ghazaryan said about Simonyan
In the approximately 50-minute video show, Ghazaryan discussed what he described as nepotism and corruption risks involving senior government officials and their relatives.
Speaking about Simonyan, he questioned the financial circumstances surrounding the purchase of a house by Simonyan’s mother, Marina Hovhannisyan, and the business activities of his brother, Karlen Simonyan.
Ghazaryan referred to reports about Karlen Simonyan’s former involvement in Euroasphalt, a road construction company that had won government contracts. He also discussed a corruption case involving Karlen Simonyan’s wife, Ani Gevorgyan.
Ghazaryan accused Simonyan of using defamation lawsuits to silence political opponents and journalists.
“Alen Simonyan is known for filing lawsuits against his opponents, journalists and media outlets whenever he hears public criticism or opinions about himself,” Ghazaryan said.
He alleged that Simonyan was attempting to silence critics through legal action and pledged to continue examining what he described as corruption risks involving the former parliamentary speaker.
The broader video also contained allegations against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and other senior officials, as well as their relatives. These allegations were presented by Ghazaryan and have not been independently established by the court ruling.
Other lawsuits against Ghazaryan
Reacting to the decision, Ghazaryan said he hoped Simonyan would appeal to the Civil Court of Appeal, predicting that he would lose there as well.
He also said members of the ruling Civil Contract party’s leadership had collectively sought 17 million drams ($46,500) in damages from him through lawsuits, including Simonyan’s rejected 2 million dram ($5,500) claim.
Ghazaryan referred to ongoing legal disputes with Prime Minister Pashinyan and another ruling party figure, Romanos Petrosyan.
In a separate lawsuit filed on October 1, Pashinyan demanded a public retraction and 6 million drams ($16,500) in compensation over Ghazaryan’s allegations concerning the prime minister’s conduct during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.
The October 14 ruling in Simonyan’s case can be appealed. The dismissal of the lawsuit does not, by itself, establish the truth of the corruption allegations made in Ghazaryan’s video.
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