Former chairman of the Urban Development Committee of Armenia Vahagn Vermishyan has filed a civil claim against Nikol Pashinyan. This is what Vermishyan’s attorney Alexander Kochubaev wrote on his Facebook page, adding the following:

“Today my client and I filed a claim with the court against Nikol Pashinyan, demanding him to refute information deemed to be defamation, as well as publicly apologize for defecting the honor and dignity of Mr. Vermishyan and the good reputation that he has as a businessman. We have also asked the court to record a violation of the right to presumption of innocence. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, in the style that characterizes him, spread information deemed to be defamation and made a clearly groundless and irresponsible statement stating that he allegedly confers titles of merited figures in Armenia. First of all, there is no judicial act in force stating that Vahagn Vermishyan has anything to do with the incriminated act, and in the absence of such act, questioning the guilt of a person is inadmissible and immoral. Summing up, we can state that the prosecution against Vahagn Vermishyan is clearly political, and his imprisonment meets all the criteria of a political prisoner, in accordance with the characterization in international law. Nikol Pashinyan “didn’t forgive” Vahagn Vermishyan for serving in office without returning funds and his actions for the State, the disclosure of schemes of involvement of the Prime Minister’s family and close ones in corruption cases and the attempts to fight against those schemes. We call on Nikol Pashinyan to immediately apologize to Vahagn Vermishyan andn refute the information deemed to be defamation and sincerely declare why Vahagn Vermishyan is in custody.”