On  1^st of November social activist Mariam Sukhudyan's lawsuit against the RoA Police Chief Alik Sargsyan and the Head of the Police Department on Public Relations Sayat Shirinyan was heard at the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash districts. The lawsuit referred to the violation of M. Sukhudyan's presumption of innocence.  

After the court hearing both sides commented on the issue.

To the question of www.hra.am on whether Sayat Shirinyan didn't know that the information, and opinion provided to the journalist were subject to publication and can be viewed as an official announcement, the representative of the Police Gayane Gasparyan answered in the following way: 'There has been a telephone conversation with a journalist, and S. Shirinyan has expressed his own opionion about the claim of NGOs for Mariam Sukhudyan's protection. It was not the official position of the Chief of Police or the position about Mariam Sukhudyan's  guiltiness. It is about the journalistic ethics, since Sayat Shirinyan had a phone call with a journalist and was not informed beforehand whether it would be published or not".

Mariam Sukhudyan was surprised at the argument, that Shirinyan's interview was about the claims of the NGOs, not about her  guiltiness: "Weren't the claims supposed to be directed to me? NGOs have sent petition to the Police for my protection,' said Mariam and recalled a part from the conversation with S. Shirinyan, "He said, "the petitions are toilet-papers", "she is a criminal", " you will come to the court and you will beg to terminate the case", said Mariam Sukhudyan. According to Mariam, if the interview violated the ethical norms or it has libeled Sayat Shirinyan, then why he did not undertake any steps during these months? "Today they merely tried to extricate themselves from that difficult situation", says Mariam Sukhudyan.

"It is good for them as well, that this step has been taken, because the immunity of the Police is very low, and this is a good reason to gain it", said Mariam, adding that the Police itself should be happy that their words "are taken into account". 'There have been so many cases, when they can call innocent people 'criminals' and not to be held liable. It has become a common practice. However, everybody makes mistakes, it can be excused, and now it is the right time for them to correct their mistakes", she said.

If the court does not find for Mariam Sukhudyan, she is planning to apply to the European Court of Human Rights.

"I am authorized by Mariam to declare that the ammount of money does not really matter, the fact is important", said the plaintiff's attorney Liparit Simonyan.

"Taking into account that there is no practice of compensating for moral damages in Armenia, what are your expectations?" asked the correspondent of www.hra.am. The attorney answered, "Not only there is no practice, but it is not even stipulated by law. We have applied according to the Convention on Human Rights". Though the attorney is not aware about other cases of compansation for moral damages, he hopes that the court will make a fair verdict.

By the way, Mariam Sukhudyan has also filed a lawsuit against the Erebuni Investigative Body for instigating a criminal case against her, which however hasn't been proceeded.

Mery Alexanyan

Source: www.hra.am