On September 27 “Chorrord Inknishkhanutiun” was informed about the suit, lodged by “Armavia” company versus the newspaper founder, “Trespassers W.” LLC. The reason for the suit was the editorial “Did ‘Armavia’ Supply Weapons?”, published in the daily on September 15, 2011. The article, particularly, quoted General Yuri Dominik, Commander of Moldovan National Army, who told that the airplane “IL-76”, which had arrived from Libya to Moldova for a new set of weapons, belongs to “the Armenian civic air company”.
The editorial was reprinted in “Chorrord Inknishkhanutiun” from the news online publication www.Epress.am. The piece was stored on Epress.am on September 14, 2011 under the title “Did the Armenian Air Company Supply Libya with Weapons?”, and referred to the Russian “Echo of Moscow” radio station and “Interfax” Russian news agency. “Chorrord Inknishkhanutiun” accompanied the reprint with a photo of an “Armavia” airplane. On September 15 Epress.am placed the refutation of the “Armavia” press service, which stated that the air company is engaged in passenger transportation solely, and not in airfreight; it had never owned the “IL-76” airplane. On September 16 this refutation was published in “Chorrord Inknishkhanutiun”, too. On the same day a protest action was held in front of the daily’s editorial office: according to the newspaper, it was attended by the employees of companies, belonging to the owner of “Armavia”, major businessman Mikhail Baghdasarov. On September 17 “Chorrord Inknishkhanutiun” once again touched upon the topic, presenting extracts from different foreign sources that had cited the Moldovan General.
The suit of “Armavia” versus “Chorrord Inknishkhanutiun” founder was submitted on September 17 before the court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan. The plaintiff demands to refute the information as contained in the editorial “Did ’Armavia’ Supply Weapons?” and discrediting its business reputation, pay off a compensation of moral loss damage of 2 mln AMD (about $ 5,400).
As “Chorrord Inknishkhanutiun” informed YPC, the preliminary hearings on the case will be held on November 1.
