Criminal case opened in Armenia against newspaper for insulting a deputy

Under the claim of Zarui Postandzhyan, an MP from the oppositional faction "Heritage" of the National Assembly of Armenia, the police has initiated a criminal case against the newspaper "Free Thinking" under the article of "insulting and compromising a person". The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Stepan Safaryan, another deputy from the same faction.

The issue of the daily "Free Thinking" of September 5, which is published both in the Armenian and Russian languages, placed an article entitled "Failed Feat of Porno Star", dedicated to the activity of the MP from the oppositional faction "Heritage" Zarui Postandzhyan. The publication was illustrated by a collage with the image of a naked woman resembling Zarui Postandzhyan. Certain Shoger Pogosyan and Pogos Pogosyan were named as the authors of the article.

Stepan Safaryan said that, under the data at the disposal of the "Heritage", the real author of the publication touching on the honour and dignity of Ms Postandzhyan, was one of the convicts on the case about the terror act in the Parliament of Armenia on October 27, 1999. He hid behind the pseudonyms put under the article.

Zarui Postandzhyan is now away from Armenia as a member of the Armenian delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

On September 9, an open letter on behalf of a certain "Group of Armenian Women" arrived to Rita Sargsyan, the spouse of President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, where the authors asked the first lady to protect them from the newspaper "Free Thinking", which humiliates the honour and dignity of the Armenian woman.

"Since the newspaper is under the auspice of an unknown force, which is in power; and there is no hope for the political consciousness of this force, we hereby ask you to draw attention of your spouse to this mean manifestation. Through his help try please to constrain these paper's upstarts, defend the honour of Armenian women and prevent the political evil from endangering the Armenian family. Don't let the word 'free-thinking' cause disgust," runs the letter to the President's spouse.

The authors of the letter express their indignation of the offensive statements addressed to the MP Zarui Postandzhyan: "Maybe in the West such gender-specific insults are usual tools in political struggle, but for us they are unacceptable."