Yesterday the Yerevan Court of general instance of Kentron and Nork-Marash communities partly sufficed the claim of NA businessmen MPs Samvel Aleksanyan, Ruben Hayrapetyan and Levon Sargsyan, who had sued “Haykakan Zhamanak” last month after it refused to run a retraction of what they say are false claims amounting to defamation of character. The case stems from an article published on October 14 of the last year by “Haykakan Zhamanak” titled “7 out of 8 are in the list.” According to the court the information in the newspaper doesn’t conform to reality and is false. It was based on claims made by Smbat Karakhanyan, a Moscow-based Armenian opposition figure. Karakhanyan was quoted as alleging that Russian authorities suspect eight senior Armenian officials and businessmen, including President Serzh Sargsyan, of involvement in drug trafficking, money laundering and other grave crimes committed in Russia. Russian officials never confirmed that. The MPs demanded that the newspaper should retract its allegations. The court made the newspaper to public a retracting article within a week from the date of the verdict. In a joint lawsuit, each of the mentioned businessmen demanded 2 million drams in moral damages. They also demand 500 thousand AMD each for the court trial expenses. The court has partly satisfied the lawsuit by declaring that the publication house of Dareskizb of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper should pay 2 million 44 thousand to each businessman. “This is a political persecution,” after the release of the verdict told our reporter the director of Dareskizb LTD Anna Hakobyan by adding that they will be appealing the verdict in all the internal courts. “After being denied we will build our next steps,” said Hakobyan as a response to our question as to how she interprets the fact that the article was written by Smbat Karakhanyan but instead the court claims the responsibility from the newspaper. “This is not correct and it’s merely a political persecution as the author informs that in the event of any uncertainty and questions people should address to him. In this case there is no doubt that the issue is politicized,” said Anna Hakobyan.
