Incident

Incident

Court rejects Eynulla Fatullayevâ€™s suit against Elmar Mammadyarov

24 November 2008 13:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ramil Mammadli â€“ APA. Yasamal district court considered the suit brought by imprisoned journalist Eynulla Fatullayev against Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, APA reports. Eynulla Fatulleyevâ€™s lawyer Isakhan Ashurov said he had defended the suit of his client. Ashurov said Foreign Minister should prove his statement that foreigners and businessmen working in Azerbaijan worried about the article â€œThe Aliyevs wage warâ€ published in Eynulla Fatullayevâ€™s Realniy Azerbaydjan newspaper in 2007. The lawyer noted that Eynulla Fatullayev had sent a questionnaire to Elmar Mammadyarov for announcing the list of the worried persons, but had not received an answer.

Foreign Ministryâ€™s representative Ramiz Aliyev regarded the suit as groundless.

The judge passed a judgment to reject the suit.

Eynulla Fatullayevâ€™s lawyer Isakhan Ashurov said they would file an appeal against the judgment.

Eynulla Fatullayev was sentenced to two and a half years in jail for libel on April 20, 2007. Later the journalist was charged with terror threat, abuse of power, national, racial and religious discrimination and tax evasion. On October 30, 2007, Eynulla Fatullayev was sentenced to eight and a half years in jail.