(GDF/IFEX) – The following is a GDF press release: Moscow, September 9, 1999 Armenia: court sentence imprisons journalist Press release On 31 August 1999, Judge Pargev Oganyan of the first instance court of the Central and Nork-Marash regions of Yerevan, pronounced a sentence in the court case initiated against Nikol Pashinyan, editor-in-chief of the daily […]
(GDF/IFEX) – The following is a GDF press release:
Moscow, September 9, 1999
Armenia: court sentence imprisons journalist
Press release
On 31 August 1999, Judge Pargev Oganyan of the first instance court of the
Central and Nork-Marash regions of Yerevan, pronounced a sentence in the
court case initiated against Nikol Pashinyan, editor-in-chief of the daily
“Oragir” (Diary). Pashinyan was found guilty of the following charges:
publishing libelous statements in the “Oragir” daily against Anush Pilizyan,
the wife of Artashes Gegamyan, a deputy of the National Assembly;
distributing defamatory information against Norik Aivazyan, candidate for
deputy, and his son Vardan Aivazyan, during the course of the recent
elections for the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia; publicly
insulting catchpoles from the Court Acts Enforcement Service of the
Kentron-Nork-Marash region and hindering them from performing their official
duties.
Taking into consideration the indicted’s young age, his clean record and the
fact that a minor child is in his custody, Pashinyan was sentenced to 3
years imprisonment. According to the court’s ruling, Pashinyan must pay a
fine of twenty minimal salaries (100,000 drams, exchange rate – $1 = 535
drams). This is the first time in Armenian history that a journalist has
been imprisoned for his publications.
The trial is an indication of the conflict between the daily’s
editor-in-chief, Pashinyan, and his opponents, including state officials,
businessmen, candidates to the Parliament and private persons as well. This
conflict began with the trial of the “Oragir” editorial board versus Serzh
Sarkisyan, the Minister of Interior and National Security, who brought a
cross-action against the daily and demanded refutation of several
publications. The trial was held from 16 to 23 March in the first instance
court of the Kentron-Nork region of Yerevan. The court dismissed the action
of the “Oragir” daily against the minister and upheld the cross-action.
The daily also lost the case against the Mika-Armenia Company (branch
establishment of the Mika Ltd. Company) and had to compensate it for damages
of US$25,000 lost by the company due to unproved information disseminated by
“Oragir”. As a result, on 8 June, at the plaintiff’s request, catchpoles
seized the daily’s property. This was the first incident in Armenia when
publication of a newspaper was practically suspended not under pressure of
power structures (executive or legislative power), but de facto and de jure
by the court ruling on a civil action of a private company. Nevertheless, on
23 June, the daily got back its computers seized by the Court Acts
Reinforcement Service under the court ruling. But the daily has not
published since its bank account was seized and the Parberakan publisher
refused to print the paper.
On 22 June, a civil action was brought against the daily by Norik Aivazyan,
a former candidate for deputy and head of the law faculty department of
Yerevan State University. Aivazyan accused “Oragir” of having published
libelous information about him in its 20 May issue. The plaintiff claimed
that he should exact from the daily the whole sum he spent during his
electoral campaign (16,634,000 drams). Under Article 112 of the Standard
Electoral Code he had no right to spend more than 5 million drams for his
campaign. Moreover, the amount of the candidate’s pre-electoral fund was
299,900 drams whereas he demanded compensation for more than 16,000 minimum
salaries. Simultaneously, the Armenian prosecutor’s office initiated a case
regarding a publication concerning Anush Piluzyan, wife of Artashes
Gegamyan, deputy of the National Assembly and leader of the block Law and
Unity.
The GDF, which is supporting protest actions and statements made by a number
of human rights and journalists organizations in Armenia, believes that,
throughout his professional career, Pashinyan often exceeded the limits of
journalistic ethics and published unproven and unexamined information. Owing
to his professional activity he repeatedly found himself “on the brink of a
foul.” Nevertheless, the GDF thinks that the first instance court’s sentence
for the imprisonment of Pashinyan, editor-in-chief of the “Oragir” daily, is
a dangerous precedent for Armenian democratic institutions and calls on
judicial authorities to review the sentence and to render judgment (or
ruling) that would not provide for the journalist’s imprisonment.
