Arthur Grigoryan vs Hraparak

Case description

The description of the case

Attorney Arthur Grigoryan, who was offended from the comments left by two readers under an article, placed on the website of "Hraparak" newspaper hraparak.am still in August applied to the court against "Hraparak" newspaper demanding a compensation of AMD 18 million for offending his dignity.

Gagik Khandatyam, the judge of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash Districts  decided to freeze the assets of "Hraparak" newspaper, but the next day on November 8, he changed his decision replacing it with a decision to put an arrest on the property.

One of the citizens wrote in the comments that he lost the chance of appealing because Arthur Gasparyan delayed the appeal, another citizen wrote that the attorney took AMD 600 thousand and tried to settle the issue by mediation.

At the same time the RA Constitutional Court (hereinafter CC) examined the petition of RA human rights defender Karen Andreasyan, by which he asked to recognize the 1081.1 article (The order and procedure of compensation of the damage caused to the honour, dignity or business reputation) of RA Civil Code anti-constitutional.

CC did not recognize it anti-constitutional, however it fixed a number of important legal interpretations, one of which concerns the lawfulness of compensation of the damage, the limited finances of the defendant should be taken into consideration while determining the amount of compensation, so as not to set an amount, which would be an enormous financial burden for the defendant, which would have decisive negative financial impact on the activities of the latter, up to the bankruptcy.

Taking this decision into consideration Grigoryan's attorney Atanesyan asked the court for time to bring their petition in correspondence with the CC decision. Later he declared that in order not to cause the daily newspaper to go bankrupt they suggest to confiscate AMD 18 million by monthly payment of AMD 250.000.

On January 13, 2012 the pre-trial phase of "Arthur Grigoryan v. 'Hraparak' daily newspaper" court session was finished and the case entered the phase of trial.

Judge Khandatyan decided that "Hraparak" newspaper had to justify the correspondence of interpretations with the facts, and the plaintiff had to justify that he was injured as a result of publications.

The trial will take place on February 24 at 12:00pm.