Armenian Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan sues PM Pashinyan

Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, leader of the Holy Struggle movement, has filed a lawsuit against Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over remarks the archbishop says are false and defamatory.

Galstanyan is seeking a court order requiring Pashinyan to retract a statement that he says "does not correspond to reality and damages the archbishop's honour and dignity," Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

The lawsuit concerns comments made by the prime minister on June 11, in which he said that the ruling Civil Contract party had received "100% honest votes," while all other political forces had secured "100% bribed votes."

"Without money, no one would have voted for them—absolutely no one," the prime minister noted.

In addition, Galstanyan is seeking symbolic compensation of 49.7 drams ($0,14), corresponding to the 49.7% of the vote that Civil Contract officially received in the election.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov