Today, the RA Court of Cassation upheld the sentence of the Appeals Court in the slander case brought by the Ijevan Municipality and Mayor Varuzhan Nersisyan against the Investigative Journalists NGO.

The Court has ordered the Investigative Journalists NGO to publicly retract statements found "to defame the reputation of the Ijevan Municipality and to slander the good name of the Ijevan Mayor." The NGO must also pay 450,000 to compensate for legal costs incurred by the plaintiffs.

Earlier, the Appeals Court had cut the amount in legal fees to be paid by the NGO from 930,000 to 450,000 AMD.

The case stems from a series of articles that appeared in Hetq back in 2008 by investigative reporter Voskan Sargsyan regarding a sand mining operation at the White Water Reservoir in the town of Ijevan, Tavoush Marz.

Despite overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that profits from the operation were being pocketed by local officials, the Ijevan Mayor sued the Investigative Journalists Ngo for slander and defamation of character.

The Investigative Journalists NGO, publisher of Hetq Online, plans to take its case to the European Court of Human Rights based in Strasbourg, France.