KPP MP Rustam Bakoyan to Publicly Apologize to Edgar Ghazaryan

The judge of the first instance court of general jurisdiction for Ararat and Vayots Dzor marzes, Gohar Kostanyan, issued a ruling on February 28 in the case brought by the former Armenian ambassador to Poland, extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador, public figure Edgar Ghazaryan against KPP MP Rustam Bakoyan.

The court has mandated Bakoyan to publicly apologize for the defamatory statements made against Ghazaryan and to pay 1 million AMD in compensation.

The court decided: 1. The claims of Edgar Ferdinandi Ghazaryan against Rustam Zurbayi Bakoyan for public apology for defamation, publicly refuting the information deemed defamatory, and compensation have been partially granted. 1.1. Rustam Zurbayi Bakoyan is obliged to publicly apologize to Edgar Ferdinandi Ghazaryan with the following text: “I, Rustam Zurbayi Bakoyan, apologize to Edgar Ferdinandi Ghazaryan for the offensive expressions ‘You have no brain,’ ‘Explain to this brainless person…,’ ‘Hey, clown,’ ‘You are not a son of your people,’ ‘What can I explain to this clown,’ ‘Beast,’ ‘You are a misunderstanding,’ ‘You are not significant enough to answer questions,’ ‘Hey, Ms. Ghazaryan, why did they bring you here,’ ‘You are very small, do you hear, hey, you are very small,’ ‘Shut up, hey’ for these offensive statements.

1.2. The text of the apology is to be published through the website that initially published the video containing the offensive statements (on the official page of the National Assembly of RA on YouTube or on the official page of ‘1in TV’ news agency on YouTube).

2. From Rustam Zurbayi Bakoyan, 1,000,000 AMD is to be collected in favor of Edgar Ferdinandi Ghazaryan as compensation for non-material damages due to defamation.

3. The remaining claims of the application were rejected.

4. From Rustam Zurbayi Bakoyan, 200,000 AMD is to be collected in favor of Edgar Ferdinandi Ghazaryan as the reasonable remuneration for legal services.

5. From Rustam Zurbayi Bakoyan, 50,000 AMD is to be collected in favor of Edgar Ferdinandi Ghazaryan as the state tax amount paid in regard to the fulfilled claim.

6. The state tax issue regarding the remaining part is considered resolved.

The ruling will enter into legal force one month after its publication and may be appealed to the RA Court of Appeals within the same timeframe. If the part of the ruling requiring execution is not voluntarily fulfilled, it will be enforced through the Enforcement Service at the expense of the debtor.

Edgar Ghazaryan submitted the claim against Rustam Bakoyan to the court on April 9 of the previous year.