First court session against Artur Sakunts
00:00, February 19, 2011 | Press Release | Freedom of Information and Speech, Right to Fair TrialOn February 18, 2011 a court session between the Head of the Lernapat Community Vano Yeghiazaryan against Artur Sakunts, Head of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly – Vanadzor, took place in Lori Region Court of General Jurisdiction.
The court session was conducted by Judge B. Grigoryan: plaintiff V. Eghiazaryan and E. Marukyan, the representative of the respondent party participating in the court session. At the court session, the claimant party presented the application and the respondent party presented an application response and both parties presented clarifications. At the court session the Head of Lernapat community insisted that on December 8, 2010, Artur Sakunts, the Head of HCA Vanadzor, degraded his business reputation and dignity by the following statement given during an interview of the “Vanadzor Kchankar” weekly: “The red flags regarding corruption crimes are not properly examined. A vivid example of that have been the red flags on a number of actions enacted by the Head of Lernapat community. As an example, the wasting of local budgets and the decision of depriving himself and his family members of property”.
The plaintiff mentioned that a criminal case was brought against him and since the investigative body hadn’t made a corresponding conclusion, he would abstain from hearing the statements of Artur Sakunts, such as the statement regarding “wasting local budget means”. What is disconcerting about the following statement made by Artur Sakunts: “of depriving himself and the family members of property” is not true, as his family members, his wife and the three minor children do not have transportation means. They also have obligations to their property and the VAZ-2121 vehicle registered in his name was bought by Arsen Abazyan, a resident of Lernapat .
E. Marukyan, the representative of the respondent party, mentioned that since 2010, the HCA Vanadzor Office had received numerous applications and complaints regarding abuses made by the Head of the Lernapat Community. During 2010, the organization made a survey of some of the decisions made by the Avagani of Lernapat Community of Lori Region between the years 2004-2010. As a result, a number of decisions including corruption risks have been revealed. Based on those findings, Artur Sakunts, Human Rights Defender and the Head of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, submitted claims regarding the abuses to the RA General Prosecutor and Lori Region Prosecutor and consequently gave interviews to different mass media.
According to the respondent party, this is one of the first judicial process cases, familiar to the Armenian Human Rights Community, which is directed towards a head of a Human Rights Organization. Moreover, starting such a judicial process against a Human Rights Defender by the head of the community and claiming compensation of 2,000,000 AMD is an attempt to repress the Human Rights Defender and puts unwarranted pressure against human rights activity. Hence, this very judicial process is directed towards all civil society institutes and it sets an unfair precedent in the Republic of Armenia in terms of guaranteeing freedom of human rights activity.
The judge decided to stop the court case because of wasting the local budget on the decision of property tax exemptions cannot be approved by a statement only. The judge mentioned that an examination was being done to find out whether or not the disseminated information was true and for that reason they would wait until the end of the criminal case, after which the court will decide how the statements made by Artur Sakunts correspond to the circumstances.