The court has returned the lawsuit filed against Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan by Liparit Drmeyan, former head of the Office of the Representative on International Legal Matters and a member of the Wings of Unity party. The information became available through the Datalex judicial system.
Judge Alfred Vardanyan identified several deficiencies as grounds for returning the statement of claim. In particular, the lawsuit did not specify Liparit Drmeyan’s patronymic or his registered address. In addition, copies of the statement of claim and its accompanying documents were sent to Nikol Pashinyan’s registered address, Sputnik Armenia reports.
“However, it is more than evident that the defendant’s registered address is not at the same time his actual residence and notification address. Consequently, the statement of claim also fails to specify the notification address, while the submitted receipt cannot constitute proper evidence confirming that a copy of the statement of claim and copies of the attached documents were sent to the defendant,” the court stated.
The court also found Drmeyan’s claim to be unclear and insufficiently specific. He asked that Pashinyan be required to “publicly retract, in the same manner and with the same level of publicity,” the information specified in subparagraphs “a” through “t” of Paragraph 3.1 of the lawsuit. The court found that the wording did not make sufficiently clear exactly which information Drmeyan sought to have retracted. At the same time, the court stressed that it had no authority to select or formulate the requested legal remedy on behalf of the plaintiff.
Drmeyan went to court seeking a retraction of information he considers defamatory.
During a briefing on July 30, Pashinyan said he was reporting an alleged crime. Alluding to Drmeyan, he said that the Electric Networks of Armenia, managed by Samvel Karapetyan, had a source inside the government. The Prosecutor General’s Office said the prime minister’s statement had been acted upon.
On July 31, Liparit Drmeyan filed a lawsuit, saying Pashinyan had made statements that were untrue and damaging to his honor and dignity. Drmeyan made no financial claim in his initial lawsuit but did not rule out adding such a claim later.
