Today the slander trial got underway at Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Court in which Margarita Martirosyan is suing Hripsime Karapetyan for defamation and personal insult. The newspaper 168 Zham has been named a 3rd party.

Martirosyan, in her suit, argues that a November 4, 2011 article, “I cannot live like this; an innocent man has been convicted”, contains baseless charges against her.

She is seeking that a retraction of the questionable excerpts be published in the paper and that the court seize 500,000 AMD from Karapetyan as compensation for her legal costs.

The defendant did not show up for today’s trial session but Judge Avetisyan decided to continue the hearing anyway.

The judge directed the plaintiff to prove that the defendant had indeed defamed her dignity and reputation and substantiate the amount of incurred legal costs.

The defendant must prove her contra-arguments. 168 Zham must prove that it published the article in question based on the say-so or letter sent by Hripsime Karapetyan and why it hasn’t yet published a retraction.

The trial will continue at a later date to be announced to the litigants.