On June 6 Vanadzor court of general jurisdiction of Lori region withdrew the action on the suit of Lernapat village Elder Vano Eghiazarian versus his co-villager Gevorg Melkonian. The case was closed since Vano Eghiazarian had recalled the lawsuit. The founder of “Aravot” daily, “Aravot Oratert” LLC, was involved in the case as a third party.
The founder of “Aravot” also appeared as a third party in two other lawsuits on the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation of Lernapat Elder versus his co-villagers Boris Ashrafian and Fahrad Voskanian (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, January 12-19, 2012 and YPC Annual Report “On Freedom of Speech in Armenia” for 2011 at https://www.ypc.am/about_freedom/ln/eng).
In all the three lawsuits, Vano Eghiazarian contested the article “Who Slanders Whom?”, published in “Aravot” on August 19, 2011. The piece reported about the August 18 protest action held against the Elder by Lernapat villagers in Yerevan in front of the RA Government. The article cited critical expressions about the Elder, made by his co-villagers Gevorg Melkonian, Boris Ashrafian and Fahrad Voskanian.
On May 31 the court of general jurisdiction of Lori region revoked the suit of Vano Eghiazarian versus Boris Ashrafian.
As Karen Tumanian, the lawyer of the three respondents, informed YPC, the village Elder had recalled the suit versus Fahrad Voskanian, too.
It should be noted that earlier, on May 29 the same court did not secure the suit of Vano Eghiazarian versus Adrineh Torosian, Vanadzor correspondent of “Hetq” online media; meanwhile on April 27 the RA Court of Cassation rejected finally another defamation suit of Lernapat village Elder, where the founder of “Zhamanak” daily appeared as a third party (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, May 25-31, 2012).
