Update on Lilit Martirosyan's trial

After Lilit Martirosyan’s speech in the National Assembly on April 5, 2019, passions sharply heated up within the circles of extremists and nationalist groups.

As we reported in the previous article, some media outlets were also not spared from spreading insults and hate speech, in particular, we are talking about the irates.am website, on whose online page there was an article in which Lilit Martirosyan was called “perverted” and “in the sin of Sodom.”

Lilit Martirosyan applied to the court on the grounds of insulting her honor and dignity, demanding a public apology and compensation in the amount of 1 million AMD.

Thus, the first hearing was held on September 6, then the court decided to distribute the burden of proof between the parties and scheduled a new hearing for November 5 of this year, but the hearing did not take place due to the absence of the defendant’s lawyer.

The new hearing was scheduled for November 28 of this year, during which the parties presented their positions on the submitted claim and evidence.

The trial ended and the court adjourned to make a verdict, which will be published on December 19, 2019.

Below you can familiarize yourself with the evidence presented by Lilit Martirosyan’s lawyer.

Based on the court’s decision of September 10, 2019 on the distribution of the burden of proof and guided by the requirements of the RA Civil Procedure Code, I present the following evidence and its justifications.

Regarding the expressions “perverted” and “in the sin of Sodom”:

According to the explanatory dictionary of the modern Armenian language, perversion means to be perverted, perversion, and perversion means perversion, that which is perverted.

By the order of the Chairman of the RA State Language Committee of October 21, 2019 According to the given text, a depraved person means a person who is depraved, devoid of moral values, and the synonyms of the word depraved are: immoral, depraved, immoral, immoral, promiscuous, spoiled, etc.

The above indicates that the word depraved offends a person's honor and dignity and cannot be used in a positive or neutral sense; moreover, such a definition means a person devoid of moral values, which cannot be perceived positively in any way.

As for the phrase "in the sin of Sodom", as is known from the Bible, it is used as a determiner in relation to the inhabitants of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah described in the Old Testament, who were lawless and sinful before God.

That is, it symbolizes the image of people living in sin.

The Respondent's statements regarding the initial intention to defame the Plaintiff's honor and dignity:

The fact that the Respondent initially intended to insult and belittle the Plaintiff's honor and dignity is substantiated by the publication of two other articles by the Plaintiff after the filing of the lawsuit, in which the Respondent continued to ridicule and insult the Plaintiff.