Village Mayor against “Hetq” Reporter was postponed

The Lori Region Court of Common Jurisdiction is proceeding with the lawsuit by Vano Yeghiazaryan, Mayor of Lernapat Community against a “Hetq” reporter, Adrine Torosyan, claiming to reimburse the damage caused to his honor, dignity and business reputation. 

Hetq weekly is involved as a respondent and a third person, who does not present a separate claim.

Entitling the article about the litigation between Vano Yeghiazaryan, Mayor of Lernapat and a resident of the same village, Gevorg Melkonyan as “The word graze addressed towards the mayor costs 1 million ADM,” the reporter stated that the mayor demands that the villager apologize, retract his words, and repay 3 million AMD (1 million AMD for slander and 2 million AMD for defamation).

The mayor of Lernapat filed two claims to the Vanadzor Court with the same financial claim, and the claim was returned on both times. The third time, the mayor submitted the claim without the financial reimbursement, demanding that G. Melkonyan only cover the court expenses.

“Mayor V. Yeghiazaryan was demanding 1 million AMD for slander and 2 million AMD for defamation from a resident in his village, as well as legal fees. Judge Hovnanyan granted a small portion of the mayor’s financial demand.” The mayor considered the sentence to be defaming, since he never made a property demand of G. Melkonyan.

In reality, the reporter did not specify that the mayor had made a property demand with the first and second claims but the demand was removed from the third claim.

However the mayor considers the abovementioned sentence and the title of the article to be slander and defamation and demands that the Hetq reporter publicly retract the defaming information, apologize to him publicly through the same newspaper and reimburse 1 million AMD, as well as the court expenses. 

A preliminary court hearing of the abovementioned civilian case was scheduled today at the Vanadzor Court, presided over by Judge Varduhi Hovnanyan. Upon the judge’s demand, the parties presented their identification documents. It appeared that respondent A. Torosyan’s passport had expired. Justifying that it was not possible to verify the respondent the judge declared her absent and decided to continue on with the hearing without her participation.

It was recorded at the hearing that there was nobody representing Hetq Weekly, involved as a third person. The judge asked the plaintiff’s opinion on continuing the session without the other parties. V. Yeghiazaryan insisted on continuing the session.

The Plaintiff, V. Yeghiazaryan, presented his claim and reaffirmed the full demand.

Taking into consideration that A. Torosyan was actually present in court and presented an identification document, and learned that it was invalid only in court, the judge decided to postpone the hearing and schedule it for January 13, 2012.

Source: www.hetq.am