Court rejects lawsuit of ex-president Kocharyan against Nikol Pashinyan

The Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan city, chaired by Judge Sergey Sahakyan, has dismissed the lawsuit of the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Report informs via Sputnik-Armenia.

The lawyers of the second president demanded to recover $5,000 in favor of the ex-president and to oblige the prime minister to publicly refute the statements made on March 1, 2021 on Republic Square in Yerevan.

The court, meanwhile, having studied the speech of the prime minister on March 1, 2021 at the Republic Square in Yerevan, didn’t reveal violations and considered that Pashinyan didn’t violate the principle of the presumption of innocence.

The court characterized the prime minister’s speech as political, which, as a result, contains the characteristics and assessments inherent in political rhetoric. In addition, it contains opinions and judgments on issues of interest to the public, including those related to the events of 2008.

“During the speech, the defendant did not name a specific person, therefore, the presumption of innocence is not violated and the claims for compensation for moral damage are unfounded,” the judge said.

Pashinyan, referring to the ‘March 1’ case, said that the people ‘who used the army against their own people in March 2008 are now trying to do it again.’ In addition, he stated that the March 1 case had been solved. Meanwhile, the March 1 case regarding Kocharyan was dismissed because the Constitutional Court considered the article under which he was accused to be unconstitutional.