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Lori region Lernapat village mayor Vano Eghiazaryan initiated a criminal case against his co-villagers Gevorg Melkonyan and Gharib Mitichyan, who, according to him, had made “insulting” and “slandering” comments in his address in the September1, 2010 issue of the “Zhamanak” daily and caused damage to his prestige, dignity, and business reputation via mass media.

The village mayor accuses Gevorg Melkonyan of comments like “he has set up an “illegal” basalt mine here”, “reached a criminal agreement with the former manager some Harutyunyan Samvel and borrowed a huge sum of money from him”. The village mayor describes the information as untrue by which damage was caused to his prestige, dignity, and business reputation.

Village mayor Vano Eghiazaryan states that he has received the land rental money from Samvel Harutyunyan not in cash but by a bank transaction. The village mayor was offended by the following comments of Gevorg Melkonyan, “We’d like to know if the “money eater” was Samvel, the village mayor or the Avagani”. In the same article, Gevorg Melkonyan also labeled him as illiterate. As compensation, the village mayor claims that Gevorg Melkonyan should publicly apologize and deny his slandering accusations in the “Zhamanak” daily, as well as court costs to be compensated. As to Gharib Mitichyan’s insulting words, in his claim, the village mayor meant the construction of a building on a Lernapat community property land by Mesrop Mitichyan, the son of Gharib Mitichyan.

With that regard, Gharib Mitichyan stated in the “Zhamanak” daily, “The village mayor has taken the house documents and is unwilling to return them”. Whereas, according to the village mayor, no such documents exist and he termed Mitichyan’s statement as slander. The plaintiff party demands that the responding party reimburse 3 million AMD for the caused slander and insult as well as publicly apologize and deny the statements via the same newspaper.

Gharib Mitichyan, Gevorg Melkonyan as well as Kamsar Tamaryan have turned to Artur Sakunts, head of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor with a letter to get legal assistance. It was particularly stated in the claim, “It has been a year since Lernapat community members have been applying to RA high-rank officials, including RA president, prime minister, Chief of Police, Lori Region Governor, Lori Region Prosecutor General regarding the numerous violations of Lernapat village mayor Vano Eghiazaryan”.

“We are concerned that, though it has been a year since a criminal case was initiated against the village mayor, he still continues to officiate by committing new violations. Moreover, the village mayor has initiated counterattacking and filed criminal cases against their claims by accusing them of slanders, while taking advantage of deliberate inactivity and patronage of the Lori Region Governor, Prosecutor General, Lori Region Investigation Department. What slander do we mean if a criminal case was initiated against the village mayor based on those “slanders”? It is curious why the village mayor does not sue the Lori region Prosecutor General’s office”. It is worth noting that Vano Eghiazaryan is charged with embezzling 11 million AMD by exceeding his official authorizations, however, he is still in office. It is appealing that village mayor Vano Eghiazaryan also filed a criminal case against Sakunts on the same grounds but this time because, in line with other corruption crimes, he mentioned about the violations committed by Lernapat village mayor in an interview published in “Vanadzorian Khchankar” Weekly.

The village mayor claims that the court should mandate the human rights activist to publicly admit his guilt and deny his slandering accusations in the same newspaper as well as demands 2.000.000 AMD to be reimbursed in compensation. “Zhamanak” daily will also elucidate these court proceedings in the future to clarify whether the village mayor has a patron or not.

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