As our readers are already know the Ijevan Municipality has initiated a legal suit in the Yerevan Civil Court designed “to compel the refutation of information that has tarnished our working reputation and good name and to seek compensation of incurred losses.” The suit brought by the Municipality demands that, “the Investigative Journalists, NGO be compelled to refute the baseless information published regarding the Ijevan Municipality and news that has tarnished the honor, dignity and working reputation of Ijevan Mayor Varujan Nersisyan.” 

The reason for this suit was an article entitled “Who is Pocketing the Profits from the Sand Mine” that “Hetq” published in its May 26, 2008 edition. The article exposed facts regarding the illegal mining operations taking place at the White Water reservoir, built along the Aghstev River at the southern entrance to the town of Ijevan. (See: Who is Pocketing the Profits from the Sand Mine?)

In their suit the Ijevan Municipality also demands that the court extract 930,000 drams from the “Investigative Journalists, NGO” as “compensation for legal fees incurred in order to make the author of the slanderous article accountable for his statements.”

The suit has been scheduled for initial inquiry on September 29th in the Yerevan Civil Court.

Concurrently, the Investigative Journalists, NGO had submitted a written petition to the Ijevan Mayor to make available a copy of the recorded minutes of the May 23rd Ijevan Community Council session and its decision to allocate 930,000 drams for legal services. However, the Ijevan Mayor refused to make such documents available; arguing that he sought to “avoid any potential speculation” and stated that he would make these items available only after the legal process had ended. The Investigative Journalists, NGO also petitioned the Regional Governor of Tavush with the same request given that according to Article 30, Point 8, of the Law on Self-Governance, resolutions passed by Community Councils must be forwarded to the appropriate Regional Governor’s Office within a seven day period. Rather than making these items available, Regional Governor Armen Ghularyan “requested the intercession” of Ijevan Mayor Varujan Nersisyan. The Mayor responded to the Governor’s request with the same reply he gave to the Investigative Journalists, NGO. Governor Ghularyan thus refused the request of the journalists and cited the arguments of the Mayor for doing so.

On its part, the Investigative Journalists, NGO has initiated a legal suit in the ROA Administrative Court seeking compensation in the amount of 114,000 drams for losses incurred “to compel the provision of information and resulting from illegal processes”.