The "Hetq" editorial offices today received a notice from the Civil Appeals Court, stating that on November 13 it has decided in favour of the Ijevan Mayor Varuzhan Nersisyan and has overturned a July 10, 2009 verdict of the Yerevan Civil Court. The lower court’s decision had rejected a slander suit brought by the Ijevan mayor and the town’s municipality regarding a May 5, 2008 article that appeared in "Hetq" exposing an illegal sand mining operation at the White Water Reservoir on the Aghstev River. Ijevan Mayor Nersisyan filed a defamation suit against "Hetq" in the court and demanded 930,000 AMD in compensation for legal fees incurred and a official retraction of the article. On July 10, 2009, Judge Ruben Apinyan rejected the claims made by the Ijevan mayor, arguing that the article in question contained nothing of a defamatory nature. As a result of the new ruling by the Appeals Court, the case has been sent back to the Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Court for reprocessing.