Lawsuit of Karabakh oppositionist against Pashinyan has been accepted by the court

As reported by “Caucasian Knot”, Karabakh activist Artur Osipyan was detained on May 18 in Yerevan after a dispute with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who was conducting an election campaign. The court sent Osipyan to pre-trial detention for two months. In the isolation facility, the activist declared a hunger strike demanding public apologies from Nikol Pashinyan for insults and slander against him and all refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh. On June 10, Osipyan was released on a travel ban, and he ended his hunger strike at home. On June 18, Osipyan filed a lawsuit in court.

The general jurisdiction court in Yerevan has accepted the lawsuit of Artur Osipyan against Nikol Pashinyan. The oppositionist himself announced this on July 21 on his Facebook page*, reminding that he demands a refutation of slanderous statements and public apologies from Pashinyan.

The activist published an official document on his page – the court’s decision to accept his lawsuit against the defendant Nikol Pashinyan. Osipyan also noted that he considers his criminal prosecution to be a “manifestation of selective justice,” as the Investigative Committee did not initiate a case against the Prime Minister based on his statement.

“The fact that the prosecutor’s office and the Investigative Committee see a crime in one case under the same circumstances, but not in another, is already a serious problem in itself. In the more coarse statements of Nikol Pashinyan, they do not see a violation of the law, while in my case, where there is no violation of the law, the prosecutor’s office makes a completely different decision,” – quoted Osipyan’s words by the publication Aravot.am.

The activist noted that all circumstances of his conflict with the Prime Minister are recorded on video, his own publications are publicly available, and a number of human rights organizations confirm the absence of legal violations on his part.

Artur Osipyan is prohibited from leaving Armenia under the terms of the preventive measure: he remains under a travel ban, but the previously applied measure of bail was lifted following the first court session, said the activist’s lawyer David Ovanisyan.

“The investigative body promptly sent the criminal case to court, and it is currently at the stage of judicial proceedings. The first court session has already taken place, and the second is expected in September,” – he told the correspondent of the “Caucasian Knot”.

Artur Osipyan is charged under three articles, including public calls for violence and hooliganism. The defender reminded that the oppositionist was deprived of freedom for 24 days and spent all this time on a hunger strike.

“The judicial process is still ongoing, and we cannot definitively say what results to expect. We hope to achieve justice, but in such politically charged cases, it would be wrong to talk about any expectations. Similar cases are usually sent to court only after several months, but in this case, the case was submitted to court within one month. Given this, I believe it is not worth expecting any miracles,” – noted lawyer Ovanisyan.