Property of "Erkir" newspaper arrested in Armenia

The court of general jurisdiction of the communities Centre and Nork-Marash has imposed arrest on the property of the newspaper "Erkir" in performance of the suit filed by Deputy Tigran Arzakantsyan on insult and slander. The newspaper received the notification today by mail.

"Armen Makyan, a senior court officer, having studied the application, lodged by Vage Ovsepyan, the legal representative of Tigran Arzakantsyan, Deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia, found that according to the execution writ issued by the court of general jurisdiction of the administrative communities of Centre and Nork-Marash of Yerevan, the property of the newspaper 'Erkir' shall be arrested, except for monetary funds, in the amount of the sum of the presented suit - 3,568,000 drams," runs the letter to the Service for Compulsory Execution of Judicial Acts.

The MP from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia Tigran Arzakantsyan filed a lawsuit against the newspaper "Erkir" (Country) with a demand to collect a fine of 3.568 million drams, or about 8000 US dollars, for insulting his honour. The MP, who is the owner of the wine and cognac company "Great Valley", says in his lawsuit that the newspaper used, in its article entitled "131 Faces and Mask", published on January 13 this year, insulting language at his address.

The MP Arzakantsyan was insulted by the phrases, where he called a "dude, speaking the Kyavar dialect," "the man who organizes air tours for Russian beauties to Armenia," "Arzakantsyan is a frequenter in casinos" and "during the current session of the Parliament he only once appeared in the corridors of the National Assembly." The article also quoted Grant Bagratyan, a former Prime Minister of Armenia and deputy director of the Yerevan Cognac Factory, this "this sucker disgrace Armenia in Russia with his cognac."

Vage Ovsepyan, advocate of the Republican MP, said: "Such flimsy statements create a negative perception of Arzakantsyan's image in the public. For this reason, he decided to collect from the newspaper the maximum fine for slander and abuse established by the law."

In his turn, Bagrat Esayan, editor-in-chief of the newspaper, considers the MP's lawsuit as unjustified, as the newspaper in that article used other people's citations or excerpts from publications of other media. "The MP believes that information about his visits to casinos is a slander, but the press and the Internet are flooded with this information," he said. According to his story, through such actions an attempt is made to restrict the freedom of speech.

Mr Esayan also said that the arrest had been imposed only on the edition's property, not on financial assets.