Judge Throws Out Lernapat Mayor's Slander Suit Against Hetq Reporter
hetq
13:05, May 30, 2012
Yesterday, Judge Varduhie Hovnanyan threw out the slander suit filed
by Lernapat Mayor Vano Yeghiazaryan against Hetq reporter Andrineh
Torosyan.
The trial dates back to September, 2011 when Mayo Yeghiazaryan sued
Torosyan for libel over an August 2011 Hetq article covering a judicial
dispute between the mayor and local resident Gevorg Melkonyan.
In her verdict, Judge Hovnanyan also stipulates that Yeghiazaryan
must pay the reporter 150,000 AMD as compensation for her incurred
legal fees.
Yeghiazaryan had changed his original financial compensatory demand
from 1 million AMD to a mere 1 AMD earlier this year. He still wanted
Hetq to issue a public retraction of the "insulting and defamatory"
information and publish an apology.