Court of Appeal upholds decision prescribing "Zhamanak" to pay fine to Kocharyan family

On October 11, the Court of Appeal dismissed the complaint lodged by the Limited Liability Company (LLC) "Skizb Media Kentron", the founder of the "Zhamanak" (Time) newspaper, against the family of ex-President Robert Kocharyan. The court upheld the decision of the first instance, under which the newspaper is obliged to pay a fine of 3 million drams (about 8000 US dollars) to the Kocharyans as compensation of moral harm.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt at the editorial office of the newspaper that the "Zhamanak" is going to appeal the decisions of the court of general jurisdiction and the Court of Appeal at the Court of Cassation.

"Verdicts on lawsuit against newspapers are passed under the same model," Nikolai Bagdasaryan, the advocate of the newspaper, told reporters after the court session. "All the judges reject our petitions under virtually the same scenario: they announce a break, go somewhere, and then pass decisions with the same content. I believe that they ask somebody, and only then make their decisions."

Natalia Martirosyan, Chair of the Armenian Committee of the Helsinki Civil Assembly, expressed her opinion to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Armenia objectively has not yet the situation in place for the freedom of speech. In her opinion, a very negative role in the today's situation was played by decriminalization of respective laws, "which in the conditions of the political culture, prevailing today in Armenia, under full control of the authorities over the courts, and at selective operation of the laws, obviously fails."

According to another human rights defender Vardan Arutyunyan, unfortunately, due to the new law, it became possible for the courts to impose financial sanctions against unwanted mass media. "From the very beginning of debates on the above bill, it was absolutely clear that the 'stick' will be directed against those media, which are beyond the control of the authorities," he said.