A court has accepted for consideration a lawsuit filed by Artsakh political figure Arthur Osipyan against Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, according to a post on Osipyan’s Facebook page.

“The Yerevan Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction has accepted for proceedings my lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan, seeking to compel him to retract defamatory statements and issue an apology,” Osipyan wrote.

Osipyan is asking the court to order the prime minister to withdraw statements he considers defamatory and to publicly apologize.

Osipyan was arrested and later placed in pretrial detention on May 18 following an incident involving Pashinyan in Yerevan’s Arabkir district.

He subsequently went on a hunger strike in protest against Pashinyan’s description of him as a “fugitive.”

Osipyan is facing charges of publicly calling for violence, publicly justifying or promoting violence, hooliganism, and obstructing journalistic activities.

On June 10, a court ordered Osipyan’s release from custody.