EcoLur
The Alliance of Public Environmental Organizations made an appeal to support “green” movement activist Yeghia Nersisyan, whom Deno Gold Mining Company sued and charged with slander. Deno Gold Mining Company accuses Yeghia Nersisyan of distorting its goodwill and slander.
“The mining company has decided to suppress “green” public movement, which supports the conservation of our habitat, water and soil. ‘Deno Gold Mining Company’ CJSC has called upon the court issuing a claim against well-known activist and public figure Yeghia Nersisyan accusing him of distorting the goodwill of the company and slander under Article 1078 (1) of the Civil Code of RA.”
The ground of the claim is Yeghia Nersisyan’s speech made at the meeting with the Armenian Diaspora in the USA on 14 December 2012 dedicated to the socio-environmental issues of Armenian mining industry. Deno Gold Mining Company demands to refute the following statement he made, “…Do you know how foreigners treat the Armenians, for example, Canadian gold company in Kapan, applied electric shock, so as the workers don’t sleep for 24 hours and could work… ”
The hearsays about using electric shock in Kapan were spread after the strikes in 2009-2010, and it was also covered by the press. Despite the unordinary and tense situation, the public couldn’t get an official assessment to what had happened in the galleries. Neither the police, which should have kept the order, nor the regional nor town administration provided information and qualified anyhow, what were the reasons for the workers to go down the galleries and whether whatever the happened complied with the law? In this case, not the public, but the company was obliged to give explanations and to prove that no force was applied.
Then, under Yeghia Nersisyan, who characterized the common situation in mining, you should guess that it’s about Deno Gold Mining Company, as he didn’t utter any company name. But the company accepted this as a personal insult and has called upon to Qanaqer-Zeytun Court. Judge A. Danielyan has adopted the case for trial and appointed the first hearing to be held at 12:00 on 29 March.
The Public Environmental Alliance calls the civil society to support Yeghia Nersisyan and demands from the court to turn down the claim issued by Deno Gold Mining Company at the first hearing because of being groundless.
March 28, 2013 at 12:30