Materials of Kocharyan vs. “Zhamanak” case missing
The court postponed today's trial on the case filed by the Kocharyans against Start Media Center LTD, which is the founder of "Zhamanak" daily newspaper.
Let us remind that on June 6, Judge Arayik Melkumyan of the court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash districts partially upheld the claim filed by Robert Kocharyan's wife and son by which they demanded that "Zhamanak" newspaper pay 6,000,000 drams (3,000,000 for a lawyer, 1,000,000 for insult, 2,000,000 for slander). The court denied the appeal only for the 3,000,000 demanded for legal services.
"Zhamanak" daily newspaper didn't agree with the court's ruling and appealed to the Court of Appeals.
Before today's trial, lawyer for Start Media Center Nikolay Baghdasaryan informed that the defendant had objected the appeal, but the company hadn't received the copy of the objection. Due to that, the lawyer asked the court for time to get acquainted with the objection.
"We think they didn't respond to our objection because our facts are undeniable. However, it turned out that they had decided to object our complaint yesterday. Even if they had sent their objections yesterday, it is obvious that we wouldn't have received them," lawyer Baghdasaryan explained.
He also informed that the case lacked a very important document. "It is a notice in which the grounds for the denial of the arguments that we presented and why the court should uphold their claim are explained. What's strange is that neither us nor the Kocharyans had presented that notice to the court. Question: How was that paper included in the case and why did it disappear now? It turns out that materials are lost when the case is transferred from one court to the next. If we decide to appeal to the European Court, we will need that document to place it at the core of our protest," said Nikolay Baghdasaryan.
However, he mentioned that they had managed to copy that document and demand an explanation from the Criminal Court of Appeals.
The next trial is scheduled for September 29.
