On September 26 “Hraparak” daily received a notification informing that Kentron Police Department has instituted criminal proceedings on the April 21, 2011 incident at the daily’s editorial office. As it has been reported, on that day, Margarita Khachatrian, Chairwoman of “Zinvor” (“Soldier”) Association of NGOs, accompanied by three people, came to the “Hraparak” editorial office to express her indignation regarding the “Hraparak” editorial informing about her visit to one of the military units. While talking with the staff the Head of “Zinvor” was free-spoken, threw at them everything that came to hand, trying to strike, as a result they had to call the police. On May 23 “Hraparak” was informed that the court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan submitted to consideration the suit of Margarita Khachatrian versus the newspaper founder, “Hraparak Oratert” LLC. The Head of “Zinvor” demanded to refute the information published in the editorial, recompense the damage, made by libel and defamation, of 2 million AMD (about $ 5,400) and cover the state duty for filing the court. On May 26 the law enforcement bodies notified the newspaper that criminal proceedings on the incident were not instituted as a result of absence of corpus delicti.
The founder of “Hraparak” complained versus the RA Investigative Service and the supervising prosecutor, who had denied instituting criminal proceedings. On July 25 court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan secured the complaint. On September 1 the RA Criminal Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the court of general jurisdiction (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, September 8-15, 2011).
Thus, the criminal proceedings on the incident at “Hraparak” office were instituted pursuant to the court ruling.
