The court has granted Archbishop Michael's lawsuit against Stepan Asatryan.
- 20 hours ago
- 1 min read
The court has granted Archbishop Michael's lawsuit against the deposed Stepan Asatryan.
"As is known, Stepan Asatryan, who was a former clergyman of Hovhannavank, had spread defamatory information about Archbishop Michael Ajapahyan.
The Court of First Instance of the Ararat and Vayots Dzor Regions of the Republic of Armenia (presided over by Judge Emin Abgaryan) has ruled:
– To oblige the respondent Stepan Artaki Asatryan, within five days after the judgment enters into legal force, to publicly refute the information defaming the honor and dignity of Gevorg Artashes Ajapahyan (His Eminence Archbishop Michael Ajapahyan) on the Haykakan Zhamanak armtimes.com website owned by “Dareskizb” LLC, by publishing a publicly accessible and publicly visible video message entitled “Refutation of the information constituting defamation directed at Gevorg Artashes Ajapahyan (His Eminence Archbishop Michael Ajapahyan)”, stating the following: “I, Stepan Asatryan, publicly declare that the information I stated during an interview at the Haykakan Zhamanak pavilion on January 22, 2026, that Mikael Ajapahyan encouraged terrorism, made threats against the Republic of Armenia from prison, and that he has a wife and daughter, is a blatant lie and does not correspond to reality. With this statement, I refute the above-mentioned defamatory information presented by me.”
– To recover 1,000,000 (one million) AMD from the defendant Stepan Artaki Asatryan in favor of the plaintiff Gevorg Artashes Ajapahyan as compensation for defamation,” the statement released by the Archbishop’s legal team says.
