Epress.am News from Armenia
Varduhi Hovnanyan, a judge of the Lori first instance court, ruled on May 30 to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Yerevan's “Avan” mental clinic against former patient Juleta Amarikyan, Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor office (HCAV), and RFE/RL's Armenian service.
Recall, the management of the clinic demanded that HCAV refute the following statements published in their “Human Rights Situation in Neuropsychiatric Medical Institutions in 2013” report: “…Juleta Amarikyan was forcefully taken to the psychiatric clinic. Lawyer Tigran Hayrapetyan said that for about a month [the woman] suffered from the hospital conditions, did not eat anything for the first 5 days, and only drank water. [Amarikyan] refused to take prescribed medications since the very first day she took them she had problems with her heart and could not sleep all night. On the last day of treatment, they forcefully injected the medication. Juleta Amarikyan suffered during her entire stay at the clinic, she was humiliated and deprived of her dignity. The patients at the psychiatric clinic were constantly beating and insulting each other and stealing each other's food.”
In addition, the clinic wanted to receive 3 million drams in moral damages, and that the potentially favorable court ruling be published by Armenian mass media outlets
Arayik Zalyan, a representatives for HCAV, told Epress.am that the claim against the organization was initially unfounded. “The Civil Code article on defamation and slander exempts from liability when publishers cite the original source of the information. Our organization obtained information via monitoring activities and named the source of the information – Juleta Amarikyan – in its report. Thus, HCAV could not be sued in this case.
“The information provided by Amarikyan was so credible that the Special Investigation Service opened a criminal case into it. It's true that the case was subsequently discontinued; but in any case, her claims were investigated. Besides, the clinic violated a number of deadlines: if you are convinced that you've been defamed, you have a month to appeal to the court. I believe, it took 'Avan' 6 months to file the suit,” Zalyan said.