"They have imposed a fine of 1,224,000AMD on me." Tehmine Yenokyan, 01 December 2022

[Summary translation prepared by Business and Human Rights Resource Center]

The basis for the lawsuit was the public speech made by the journalist-environmentalist on August 12, 2018 in Jermuk that was broadcast live on her personal Facebook page.

"The text of my speech was as follows: "Hello... Welcome... especially to all those people who protect our Amulsar mounatain for 51 days and do not allow a criminal like Lydian to continue its crimes... I would also like to say that during these years, Lydian made number of provocations, spread false information, tried to incite inter-communinty and inter-state disputes, both in Gndevaz, Jermuk, Kechut, as well as in Gorayk, Saravan and between number of other communities." Along this text, my lawyers Nina Hakobyan and Tigran Stepanyan also presented evidence and justifications for this speech that I made. However, the Court of Appeal of Armenia satisfied the claim of 1,224,000 Armenian drams, and the RA Court of Cassation did not accept my claim on November 9. Please study the documents and if you consider expressing your position on this matter publicly, I will be grateful," said the journalist in her letter to "Aravot".

On September 5, 2018, "Lydian Armenia" CJSC filed a lawsuit at the Ararat and Vayots Dzor Regions Court of General Jurisdiction against journalist and environmentalist Tehmine Yenokyan, demanding that she was obligated to deny public statements defaming the company's business reputation, pay compensation of 1 million drams, as well as 300 thousand drams for the services of the lawyer. According to the plaintiff, the journalist-environmentalist's speech on Facebook live slandered and tarnished the business reputation of the company. According to the plaintiff company ... "Using such expressions, the defendant initially pursued the goal of defaming the company's business reputation, which is confirmed not only by the fact that the defendant did not take reasonable measures to verify the truthfulness of the information, but also did not substantiate and did not present them to the public. She even called on the public to follow the Facebook pages and join the protesters, whose illegal activities disrupted the functioning of "Lydian Armenia" CJSC".