Head of Azerbaijani MIA accuses journalist of slander

Ramil Usubov, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, has submitted his private suit against Eyub Kerimov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Femida-007". The Minister asks to bring the journalist to criminal liability under the slander article, which assumes up to three years of imprisonment.

The editor's case will be considered on November 26 by the Yasamal District Court of Baku under chairmanship of Judge Khagani Tagiev.

The suit presents particular claims on the articles "Letter-Writing" and "MNS (Ministry for National Security) and General Prosecutor's Office Know the Customer Perfectly", published in "Femida-007" this year. Besides, the MIA boss was unhappy with the article "MIA in Play and Out", published by the "Azadlyg" newspaper.

Alirza Abilov, who is representing Mr Usubov, said that Kerimov had admitted in his articles published in the "Azadlyg" and "Femida-007" offensive and slanderous insults against the Minister and MIA's staff, having accused police bodies of criminal activities. To the question on possibility of parties' reconciliation, Mr Abilov said that "this point is outside the agenda."

According to Ekhsan Zakhidov, an employee of the MIA's press service, Kerimov had treated the MIA in his publications as "the structure where criminals are trained" which has "caused reasonable indignation of veterans and operating workers of the police." Mr Zakhidov has added that the suit was lodged "after persistent appeals" of the police staff to their boss.

However, respondent Kerimov believes that there was no slander of the Minister and Azerbaijani MIA in his publications.

"The point was in existence of a bandit grouping headed by officer Gadji Mamedov within the MIA system, which kidnapped and murdered people for many years, while Mamedov had been quite safe in his position of senior operative worker. When the grouping was tried, it turned out that practically all resonant crimes of the 1990s and first half of 2000s were committed by its members" said Kerimov and added that this is an "indisputable fact".

Meanwhile, the Institute of Media Rights (IMR) has expressed its deep concern of the threat of Kerimov's arrest for his "critical publications on negative phenomena within the system of law enforcement bodies."

The IMR regards the criminal suit against the journalist for his publications as "pressure on the freedom of expression", as reported Rashid Gadzily, head of this NGO.