Court Rules on Amount to be Recovered from Arman Babajanyan in Favor of Arthur Vanetsyan

The president of the "Homeland" party and former head of the National Security Service, Arthur Vanetsyan, has been awarded a legal victory over former MP Arman Babajanyan. The Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction, presided over by Judge Naira Avetisyan, has mandated Babajanyan to retract statements deemed defamatory against Vanetsyan and to issue an apology.

In his defamatory remarks, Babajanyan claimed that Arthur Vanetsyan was 'unpatriotic' and suggested that the individual referred to as "Candidate" in a controversial dossier was, in fact, Vanetsyan. Babajanyan asserted that the entire situation hinged on him, accusing Vanetsyan of being completely compromised by Russian intelligence services interested in political changes in Armenia.

Following the trial, the court concluded that Babajanyan did indeed defame Vanetsyan, obligating him to publicly apologize in the following manner: “I, Arman Babajanyan, apologize to Arthur Vanetsyan and publicly retract the derogatory statement made on www.factor.am regarding him in the video titled 'Vanetsyan is the Candidate in the Dossier: He is Compromised by Russian Intelligence,' published on 18.09.2020, which included the insult of ‘unpatriotic.’”

Additionally, the court has ordered Babajanyan to pay a total of 1,123,000 AMD to Arthur Vanetsyan, which includes 500,000 AMD for defamation, 300,000 AMD for insult, 300,000 AMD towards court costs for reasonable attorney fees, and 24,000 AMD in state duties.