The RA Court of Appeals will try the claim of “the acquitted over Mataghis case” versus Gagik Jhangiryan
06:24, October 15, 2013 | News | Prohibition of abuse of rights, Right to be free from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to Respect for Private and Family Life
After long-lasting court proceedings on December 18, 2012 the RA Shirak Region Court of Common Jurisdiction declared Arayik Zalyan, Musa Serobyan and Razmik Sargsyan innocent over the brought up accusation and acquitted them. However, not everyone agreed with the promulgation of much expected and just verdict. Specifically, on the same day in his interviews with www.aravot.am և www.lragir.am news electronic outlets, the RA NA deputy Gagik Jhangiryan did not agree with the court’s ruling by claiming, “They are the murderers and they should serve their sentence, I haven’t changed my opinion”.
On January 15, 2013 a claim against Gagik Jhangiryan was submitted to the Court of Common Jurisdiction of Arabkir and Qanaqer-Zeytun Administrative Districts of Yerevan by A. Zalyan, M. Serobyan and R. Sargsyan regarding compensation for the damage caused to their prestige, dignity and business reputation and obliging the latter to make a public apology.
However, this claim was declined by the court justifying that each time there was a demand of defamation of prestige, dignity and business reputation through insults and slander, attention should be paid to the explanations, approaches of a person who publicly submitted factual data, to the attitude towards the factual data submitted by that person to find out whether through the submitted factual data the person intended to defame anyone, or objectively expressed his evaluative judgments in the meantime expressing a conscientious approach. Besides, the court justified upon delivering its disposition the acquittal verdict didn’t enter into legal force.
Taking this and other facts as a ground, the court refused the claim on July 16, 2013.
On July 9, 2013, Arayik Zalyan and Musa Serobyan submitted an appeal by claiming that the Court had violated a number of articles of the RA Constitution and the RA Civil Code. The appeal was also justified by the fact that “Mataghis case” expression was associated with Arayik Zalyan, Musa Serobyan and Razmik Sargsyan, therefore, G. Jhangiryan’s statement and his voiced opinion could only relate to them.
Besides, during the case trial the Court relied on the publication “Iravunk” newspaper, which, however, was not included in the materials over the case submitted both by the plaintiff and responding parties. Thus, the Court made a reference to a proof which was not examined in the court, was not even within the framework of proofs.
You can see the Court’s justifications and counterarguments submitted by the plaintiff party in the complete version of the appeal.
By examining the presented materials, the RA Civil Court of Appeals reached a decision to take the submitted appeal into proceedings.
The court trial was scheduled for 12:00 pm, November 7, 2013 at the RA Court of Criminal Appeals.