The preliminary court hearing in the civil case “Avinyan against 168 Hours and Davit Sargsyan”
The preliminary court hearing in the civil case “Tigran Avinyan against Davit Sargsyan and 168 Hours” is being held today in the First Instance Court of Yerevan General Jurisdiction in Arabkir.
Let’s not forget that February 25, 2023, 168.am and the YouTube channel of the website posted the regular edition of the “Two Faces” program authored by 168.am journalist Davit Sargsyan, about the de facto mayor of Yerevan, Tigran Avinyan, the mayoral candidate of Nikol Pashinyan’s “Civil Contract” party in the upcoming elections of the Yerevan Council.
The video was titled “Tigran Avinyan, the newly richman”. The excerpts from Tigran Avinyan’s interviews were used, and other information about the deputy mayor and his family, friends’ businesses, and property were taken exclusively from open sources. It turns out that Tigran Avinyan does not like to face the truth and has applied to the court with a demand to apologize, to oblige him, to deny the information defaming his honour, dignity and business reputation and to pay monetary compensation.
Moreover, the request of Tigran Avinyan and his representative, to put a lien on the journalist’s bank accounts and property in the amount of 9 million drams, by the judge investigating the case, Eduard Amalyan, was satisfied, but also the property of “168 Hours” LLC in the same amount, i.e. another 9 million drams, rejecting the motion to attach movable property and cash accounts.
Thus, in general, Tigran Avinyan demanded 18 million drams be imposed on the properties and bank accounts of journalist Davit Sargsyan and “168 Hours”.
This unprecedented disgrace was condemned by everyone: politicians, public figures, local and international journalistic organizations, including Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
After the uproar, Tigran Avinyan submitted a petition to the court on the issue of removing the lien applied to the property and bank accounts of 168.am journalist Davit Sargsyan.
At the preliminary court session, the plaintiff’s representative, Harutyun Harutyunyan, presented the content of the claim and their monetary demands.
Next, Davit Sargsyan’s representative, Aram Orbelyan, made corrections regarding individual parts of the publication: do they consider this or that part as an insult or slander?
Aramazd Kiviryan, the representative of “168 hours” also presented his observations regarding the claim. The latter had questions about the certainty of the subject matter of the claim.
“For me, it should be clear what an insult is and what slander is,” said Aramazd Kiviryan.
Harutyun Harutyunyan replied to the judge’s question whether Avinyan’s representative does not want to clarify the issue. The latter also, in response to Aramazd Kiviryan’s question, said that the extrajudicial order was not exhausted by this proceeding, he did not apply to “168 hours” with a demand for denial.
Journalist, respondent Davit Sargsyan wandered whether Tigran Avinyan’s representative is distancing himself from his trustee.
“Yes, of course, I don’t want to be identified,” said Harutyun Harutyunyan.
After discussing certain procedural issues, the court proposed to interrupt the court session, as Tigran Avinyan and his representative had not received the answers of both Davit Sargsyan and “168 Hour” as respondents. The court mentioned that the party, in this case, the representative of Tigran Avinyan, should get acquainted with the responses of the responding party regarding the claim.
A break was called for a few minutes to discuss technical issues. After the break, both Aramazd Kiviryan and Aram Orbelyan said that they do not object to postponing the session, but they want one court session to be scheduled before the mayoral elections. On this occasion, the court itself announced a break for a few minutes to understand the work schedule of the court.
After the break, the court decided to schedule another preliminary hearing on September 4 at 2:45 p.m.
Details in the video.
GOHAR SAVZYAN
