A controversial Armenian tabloid known for running outrageously disparaging stories about public and political figures has effectively been vindicated for derogatory treatment of parliament member last year.

Zaruhi Postanjyan, a professional lawyer and current MP with the opposition Heritage party, was angered by the publication in Azatamtutyun in July that called her bad names and carried an edited picture showing her face on a nude body. The deputy known for her active social advocacy and opposition views sued the paper for slander but police later dismissed the case, considering that “the author of the article did not have the purpose to insult.”

On February 10, Postanjyan turned to court, appealing the decision to dismiss the case, however she thinks that everything is being done “on the instruction from above.”

“It is well known that Azatamtutyun has mighty patrons in power and all this is being implemented on clear instructions. But we will go as far as the European court. My children also saw that ugly story, so that deed can’t go unpunished,” Postanjyan, a mother of three, told ArmeniaNow.

Azatamtutyun is published daily and is distributed in 2,000 copies.

In making the decision to dismiss the case the Yerevan police’s investigation department acknowledged that the article did contain insults directed at Postanjyan, but said that the testimony given by one of the authors of the article showed that “the author of the article did not know Postanjyan personally, and therefore did not have the goal of insulting her.”

“That is, if another newspaper now publishes an ugly story about the wives and daughters of these investigators, repeatedly calling them whores and places a photo attaching their faces to some nude woman’s image, and says that he does not know them and therefore has no purpose of insulting them, will it mean that he is innocent?” says Postanjyan’s lawyer Hayk Alumyan. “This is simply absurd.”

According to the lawyer, the author could not but have the purpose of delivering an insult in a story headlined “A Failed Porn Star’s Feat”. Let alone the illustration with a nude woman that the authors tried to portray as Postanjyan and the tone of the article: in the 1,000-word story the MP at least ten times is called a whore, immoral, a pervert and is given other personal insults.

The author of the story with the penname of Shogher Pashinyan (a “blend” name and surname for the editors of two opposition newspapers, Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun’s Shogher Matevosyan and Haykakan Zhamanak’s Nikol Pashinyan) was later identified by police as Edik Grigoryan, a prisoner serving a life term for his role in the October 27, 1999 attack on the Armenian parliament.

Grigoryan, who said in an interview with Zhamanak daily that he did not regret having written the article, already knew that the case would be closed a month before the police actually made that decision.

“That’s nothing. I know about this criminal case. The case will soon be closed,” the lifer said on November 27, 2009, and the case was dismissed on December 21.

Postanjyan insists that police should also determine how the inmate knew the case was to be dismissed.

“This is another proof that the case was dismissed following a special instruction,” lawyer Alumyan told ArmeniaNow.

The Heritage MP sued Azatamtutyun on Penal Code articles 135 and 136 (slander and insult), which sets a fine of between 100,000 and 500,000 drams ($260-$1,300).

Postanjyan is not the only “victim” of Azatamtutyun. Similar slanderous stories with edited photos were published about former Deputy Culture Minister, writer Karine Khodikyan, other stories involved well-known ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan, choirmaster Hovhannes Chekijyan and other well-known and respected people.

After these series of articles a group of Armenian women last year addressed an open letter to Armenia’s First Lady Rita Sargsyan asking her “to call the paper’s editor to order”.

“Since the paper enjoys the patronage of an unknown government force and it is pointless to hope for their civil consciousness, we ask you to invite the attention of your husband to this ugly thing,” said well-known female intellectuals. The letter, however, has remained without a response.

Meanwhile, in rare interviews Azatamtutyun’s former editor-in-chief Artyom Khachatryan (responsible for articles on Postanjyan and others) said he was unrepentant about what his paper was doing, while he did admit the insulting nature of the stories.