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The Lori Region Court of First Instance initiated a decision whereby the villagers do not have the right to express opinions or criticize the activities of Vano Eghiazaryan, the Village Mayor, who was elected by the village citizens.

The case concerns the Lori Region Lernapat Village Mayor, who has been charged with exceeding his official authorizations for the embezzlement of 11 million AMD from the state budget which was allocated to be used for the community. However, neither disciplinary action nor termination of his authorizations has been implemented.  He continues to hold office and sue co-villagers who express personal opinions or criticize him. And because the criticism and opinions were disseminated via “Zhamanak” daily, the Court also included us as an independent non-claimant third party.

Recently the court partially satisfied Vano Eghiazaryan’s case against co-villager Gharib Mitichyan for causing damage to his prestige, dignity, and business reputation as well as for slander. Out of the 3 million AMD and judicial expenses claimed by Vano, the Court only obliged Gharib to pay a state duty of 9,200AMD and 30,000 AMD for the offenses and slander as Gharib’s only income source is his 3 cows. The Court also obliged Gharib to publish articles denying the slanderous statements and to make a public apology in the same newspaper. In order to make it comprehensible for the readers on how accurately the court has assessed the case-related circumstances, the following is a complete overview of what caused village mayor Vano to get offended or “to suffer slanders”(those parts are underlined). Gharib Mitichyan noted, “It is true that in the beginning we did not realize it, but in the end Vano revealed his real face and intensively started doing harm to his co-villagers. Bushes under a fence were obstructing the process of carrying hay. So we cut them and then the mayor filed a case against us. Why and for what purpose? It is as though I were an oppositionist and caused damage of 40,000 AMD to Nature.”

And to the journalist’s question, if he has submitted an appeal, he replied, “Who should I appeal to?  There should be a proper Government to appeal to and this man has been robbing us for ten years and nobody has been able to deal with him.  Instead, they made me hold a Bible, take an oath and admit cutting a tree. I have paid 20,000 AMD already and still must pay the remaining sum. I cut off from food money and I have 6 boys and 12 grandchildren. The village mayor gave a dwelling to my eldest son, but demanded 500 dollars in return. Later he again sued us stating that it was an illegal construction. We did not pay the 500 dollars right away because we knew what type of a person he was and we wanted everything finished and then pay him. I have had to turn to the mayor several times as my grandchild was on the verge of death. I needed 50,000 AMD, but he only lent me 15,000 AMD.  Later as we were short of money, he wrote 50,000 AMD in the support list under my name which became another subject for court proceedings. Now, I annul the 15,000 AMD. I phoned my daughter-in-law the other day informing that there was money available under her name. She replied that she had not received any money. There is 50,000 AMD under my name, 50,000 AMD under my other son’s name yet he did not put anything at all under the name of the younger son because the latter is his friend, and he refused to pay him.   Instead it was suggested he buy petroleum for 50, 000 AMD saying that he was in a bad situation, but in fact he was not. 

This used to be a factory area, after the earthquake when I came to settle here, I was employed as a guard as I had no place to stay. I have raised all of my children here. I am completely disappointed with our government. Instead of being thankful to me, they file a case against me…”

People are losing their patience. It is the same thing all the time, “how can we continue to live in such a fearsome atmosphere”? This man cannot do everything by himself, he must have a patron. Both his sister and cousin evidently state, “What can you do?  What could you do 6 months ago to be able to do something now? We have good defenders and relatives”.  It is curious to observe that Vano did not deny having illegally checked out 50,000 AMD under the names of some of Mitichyan’s family members (except for the daughter-in-law). He also admitted being involved in robbery 10-years ago.  He has been heard making statements about having patrons. He did not get offended from such statements; instead he considered the following statements insulting “He did not even let us sow wheat explaining we did not need it, instead suggested sowing grass and selling it”.    I have raised 6 children, sent them to the army, I have many grandchildren.   That man has changed every policy; the non-watered pasture should be watered so that he can extort more soil duties. There is a 120, 000 AMD debt on me and I have no idea where it came from.   The villagers were supposed to water the soil to get some results today.  This year because of the combine harvester we decided to turn the pastures into forage; however, it was not beneficial for him. He has neither wheat nor time to go to the Municipality to get a combine harvester. This man does not want to help his villagers.”

The plaintiff considered the following statements as slander:   “The village mayor has kept the house documents and will not give them back”, “the mayor gave a dwelling to my eldest son, but demanded 500 dollars in return and later sued us stating that it was an illegal construction”.  He said that the aforementioned caused damage to his prestige, dignity, and business reputation. While the two other expressions, “If I lose my mind, I will “thrash” you to death” made by Mitichyan, as an offense by explaining that the first one was addressed rather to an animal than to human being, whereas Vano was presented as a tyrant in the second statement. The court did not consider the second statement a slander.

Arayik Zalyan, lawyer from Helsinki Citizens” Assembly-Vanadzor, who was representing the interests of the responding party, noted in the response of the claim that there were no slanderous or offensive words in Mitichyan’s expressions, as the latter only expressed his opinion based on materials obtained as a result of criminal cases initiated against Vano Eghiazaryan, regarding the press disseminations which were posted on the website of the RA Prosecutor General’s Office. However, the Court satisfied the case based on the following: the village mayor did not provide Mitichyan’s son with a dwelling and did not keep the documents because they did not exist in the past and the mayor does not have such authorization. He has been working as a village mayor since 1999, while the responding party had occupied the area after the earthquake. But at the same time the Court accepted the fact that the village mayor should have sold the area and unauthorized construction to Gharib’s son by Avagani decision. The plaintiff recognized the unauthorized construction of Mitichyan’s son as a community property, obtained an ownership via cadastre and sold it to Mitichyan’s son. But this started after several publications to show there was no slander. The Court also concluded that the expression “thrashing” the village mayor is a slander, because it is not conditioned by public interest. The court considered it ungrounded to express an opinion based on the case-related materials, since there is no legal verdict over Vano Eghiazaryan’s case. The responding party will appeal the resolution taken by the Lori Region Court of First Instance.

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