Word of Life Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith in Armenia and Artur Simonyan Sue Armenia in the Europwan Court of Human Rights
he applicants are a religious organization and its senior pastor and leader, Artur Simonyan. He is an
Armenian national, who was born in 1966 and lives in Verin Ptghni (Armenia).
The case concerns a weekly newspaper’s (Iravunk Hetaqnnutyun – “Law Investigation”) publication of
articles referring to the applicant organization as a “sect” and its followers “sectarians”. The focus of
the articles was a scandal about a famous actress, amid speculation that she was a follower of the
applicants’ faith. The applicants’ claims against the newspaper for defamation and insult were
ultimately unsuccessful.
Relying on Article 6 (right of access to court) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the
applicants complain that the Court of Cassation refused to admit the applicants’ appeal on points of
law in their case because of a purely technical error. They also rely on Article 9 (freedom of religion)
to complain that certain findings by the Armenian courts breached the duty of neutrality and
impartiality in religious matters, in particular their justifying the use of the words “sect” and
“sectarian”, by the fact that the applicant organization’s beliefs deviated from the dominant Armenian
Apostolic Church.
The European Court on Human Rights found that there was a violaton of Article 6 § 1.
The Court ordered the Republic of Armenia to pay the defendants 3,600 euros in damages and 1,000 euros for costs and expenses.
