On March 7 court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan revoked the suit of advocate Artur Grigorian versus “Hraparak” daily founder, “Hraparak Oratert” LLC. As it has been reported, the reason for the suit became the readers’ comments to “Hraparak” article, “Citizens, Are They Victims of Disloyal Advocates?”, published on August 10, 2011 and stored on www.hraparak.am. In the readers’ comments Artur Grigorian had counted six wordings that discredited his honor and dignity, and evaluated the moral damage for each of them by 3 million AMD. Thus, the overall amount of financial claims to the newspaper made 18 mln AMD (about $ 47,000). The suit was taken into consideration on October 20, 2011; on November 8, 2011 an arrest was put on the “Hraparak” funds – to secure the suit. The court hearings started on January 13, 2012. At the January 13 session Artur Grigorian presented a supplement to the suit in which he suggested the plaintiff pay him the compensation by equal installments within several years in order not to undermine the financial situation of the plaintiff (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, January 12-19, 2012).
The March 7 court decision particularly stressed that “Hraparak” had no intentions to slander and insult Artur Grigorian; the readers had left the comments on the website, moreover they were deleted upon the plaintiff’s demand. The court revoked the suit as unjustified and resolved to exact from Artur Grigorian 360,000 AMD in proportion to financial claims.
