Demand 7 million AMD in compensation 

It seems that the modus operandi of the family of Armenia’s second President, Robert Kocharyan, is catching. The latest trial session in the case pitting Bella and Sedrak Kocharyan (the former president’s wife and son) against the news daily Zhamanak was scheduled for today but it was cancelled. The plaintiffs never showed up.

There’s another case in the spotlight as well. A number of oligarch MP’s, members of the ruling Republican Party, have sued the opposition-based Haykakan Zhamanak daily. The MP’s are Levon Sargsyan (better known as Flour Mill Lyuvik), Samvel Aleksanyan (aka Lfik Samo) and Rouben Hayrapetyan (aka Nemets Rubo). Haykakan Zhamanak, in its October 14, 2010 edition, wrote that, according to its sources, Russian law enforcement agencies had linked certain Armenian government officials to narco-trafficking and money laundering schemes being investigated.

Russian law enforcement had revealed that local criminal groups were closely linked to various Armenian government officials. A list of the alleged Armenian collaborators was drawn up and according to our information Russia’s General Prosecutor spoke of the list with Smbat Karakhanyan, President of the Moscow-based “Unity” Armenian Club. The Russians also made the list available to the Armenian General Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepyan and National Security Director Gorik Hakobyan on a non-offical level. Haykakan Zhamanak wrote that the Russians raised the question of bringing those listed to account for themselves. The newspaper reprinted the list and the above mentioned three Armenian MP’s were at the top. Twenty days later, the Armenian General Prosecutor’s office stated that they had contacted their colleagues in Russia and had been informed that Moscow had no knowledge of the names included in the Haykakan Zhamanak article and no files on them. The statement released by the RA General Prosecutor’s Office said that at no time, in public or private meetings, had the issue been discussed of certain Armenian officials having ties to Russian criminal elements.

“The claim by the newspaper that the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office contacted the RA General Prosecutor and presented some sort of list of Armenian officials whose names have come up during criminal investigations in Russia is an outright falsehood and fabrication.” MP’s Sargsyan, Aleksanyan and Hayrapetyan sent a joint letter to the editorial board of Haykakan Zhamanak, demanding a retraction of the article. The newspaper’s publisher, Anna Hakobyan (Director of “Dareskizb Ltd.” and wife of chief editor Nikol Pashinyan), told us that the retraction supplied by the MP’s was unintelligible. Furthermore, according to Hakobyan, the MP’s demanded that the retraction statement, full of insults directed at the paper, be signed by the editorial board itself.

The paper never published the retraction statement as supplied. Instead, in its December 28 edition, the paper apologized to its readers, saying that the October 14th article was published by mistake and that it hadn’t been edited properly. The paper published a correction note, saying that the information regarding the list had been supplied by Smbat Karakhanyan of the Unity Club in Moscow, not the Russian General Prosecutor. All three MP’s received a letter from jailed Haykakan Zhamanak Editor Nikol Pashinyan, asking what it was they exactly wanted the paper to refute. Pashinyan received his answer in the form of a united lawsuit filed by the three MP’s. In addition to a retraction, each MP demanded 2million AMD in moral compensation and 500,000 AMD for incurred legal fees. In total, the paper was being threatened with 7.5 million in losses. Anna Hakobyan says that this is just another calculated move against Haykakan Zhamanak.

“These guys don’t need the money. They just want to financially break us.” She is adamant that the paper will not be shut regardless of the financial pressures brought to bear. Readers will remember that late last year, Robert Kocharyan’s youngest son Levon, won a 3 million slander suit against Haykakan Zhamanak. The paper had written that Levon Kocharyan had been involved in a drunken fracas in Dubai the preceding New Year’s and had been arrested. The Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Court, Judge Karineh Petrosyan presiding, has initiated a preliminary investigation of the MP’s legal suit. The next trial date is set for January 24.