Armenian court accepts Pashinyan lawsuit against Russian oligarch

A civil court in Yerevan has accepted for consideration a lawsuit filed by Civil Contract party prime ministerial candidate Nikol Pashinyan against Russian oligarch Samvel Karapetyan, with Pashinyan seeking 6 million drams (about $16,000) in damages.

Earlier, Karapetyan alleged that Pashinyan had tried hallucinogenic mushrooms in China and brought back around a ton of them, supposedly consuming them before speeches in parliament and during exchanges with journalists, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

In response, Pashinyan threatened to sue the businessman and “feed him that ton of mushrooms.”

Pashinyan demands that Karapetyan publicly retract his statements live on at least three media outlets with audiences of no fewer than 200,000 YouTube subscribers.

The lawsuit was filed on May 11 and accepted by the court of first instance on May 14.

Under the claim, the retraction statement must be read out in full without any comments or explanations from the defendant.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov