{"id":82560,"date":"2011-04-06T12:19:41","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T07:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=82560"},"modified":"2011-04-06T12:20:36","modified_gmt":"2011-04-06T07:20:36","slug":"kocharian-lawyers-defend-fresh-libel-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2011\/04\/06\/kocharian-lawyers-defend-fresh-libel-suit.html","title":{"rendered":"Kocharian Lawyers Defend Fresh Libel Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lawyers for Robert Kocharian on Tuesday defended his decision to sue yet another Armenian newspaper, saying that it used offensive language to describe the country\u2019s former president, reports <a href=\"http:\/\/www.azatutyun.am\/content\/article\/3548065.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>RFE\/RL&#8217;s Armenian service<\/strong><\/span><\/a> (Azatutyun Radio).<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to RFE\/RL\u2019s Armenian service, the lawyers representing the Yerevan-based law firm G-Partners cited specific passages from an article that appeared in local daily Hraparak on Feb. 12.<\/p>\n<p>The article discussed Kocharian\u2019s spat with the ruling Republican Party of Armenia. It referred to the ex-president as a \u201cblood-thirsty\u201d individual who is also notorious for his \u201cparticularly brilliant foolishness.\u201d The author also questioned his \u201chuman ability to think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are quite unethical and inappropriate claims,\u201d said Arpine Melikbekyan, one of G-Partners attorneys. She said such public characterizations not only violate Armenian law but also the European Convention on Human Rights.<\/p>\n<p>Melikbekyan added that she and her colleagues will present more detailed arguments during court hearings on the libel suit which are scheduled to start on May 10. Kocharian is seeking 6 million drams (about $16,200 US) in damages.<\/p>\n<p>He has also demanded last month that Hraparak assets be frozen pending a court verdict on the case. A Yerevan court granted the petition last week.<\/p>\n<p>Sargis Grigoryan, another Kocharian lawyer, defended the court injunction. He claimed that Hraparak broke a pledge to retract its disparaging statements on the ex-president.<\/p>\n<p>But Hraparak editor Armine Ohanyan denied that, saying that the plaintiff\u2019s representatives never clarified in writing which sentences in the controversial article should be refuted. \u201cI just didn\u2019t know what retraction text would satisfy their demands,\u201d she told RFE\/RL\u2019s Armenian service. \u201cWe asked them to send a text but they never did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ohanyan condemned the lawsuit and accused Kocharian of \u201cdeclaring a war on print media\u201d on Monday. She pointed to similar legal action that was taken by Kocharian and his family members against two other newspapers in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>Grigoryan dismissed suggestions that the spate of libel suits could actually damage Kocharian\u2019s reputation. \u201cDefense and restoration of rights are a supreme value,\u201d he said. \u201cNo statistics, no evaluation of image and public relations implications have anything to do with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawyers for Robert Kocharian on Tuesday defended his decision to sue yet another Armenian newspaper, saying that it used&#8230; <!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[23058,24382,11976,17366,24383],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}