Kocharian's Office Criticizes Court Decision in Pashinyan Case

The General Jurisdiction Court has rejected the application of the second President of Armenia, Robert Kocharian, against Nikol Pashinyan, which sought the retraction of defamatory information and compensation.

Today, July 31, it has become known that the General Jurisdiction Court has dismissed Robert Kocharian's lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan regarding the demands to refute information that damages his honor and dignity, as well as to pay compensation.

The court regarded Pashinyan's expressions as evaluative judgments directed at Robert Kocharian.

Yerevan.Today contacted Bagrat Mikoyan, head of the office of the second President of Armenia, Robert Kocharian, requesting a commentary on the court's decision. Mikoyan stated:

“The first-instance court, by rejecting the second President of Armenia's claim against Nikol Pashinyan, did not confirm the truthfulness of Pashinyan's statements, considering them as subjective evaluative judgments of Pashinyan himself. However, it is genuinely concerning that the court approached these expressions by taking into account that they were made not as a citizen, but specifically by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia during a government meeting. It turns out that the higher the position, the broader the boundaries for expressing the most severe evaluations about an individual. According to the court's logic, it would be permissible to make similarly defamatory statements about Nikol Pashinyan, provided that the individual making those statements is also a political figure; in that case, the court would evaluate it as an evaluative judgment of a political figure. It remains to be seen which of the phrases ‘trembling judges’ and ‘corrupt judges’ made by political figure Pashinyan the judge who issued the verdict also considers as evaluative judgments.”