In Dagestan, trial on "Chernovik" case postponed till certificates arrive

Today, another hearing was held in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, on the criminal case initiated against journalists of the local weekly "Chernovik", accused of kindling national, racial and religious enmity. 

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, the session started with presentation by Abdullah Magomedov, one of the weekly's advocates, of his objections to the state accuser's petition of March 10 to reject the linguistic examination made by the journalists.

According to his story, the examination was presented not as the proof of incompetence of the linguistic examination conducted by expert Sergey Shipshin, but as an indicator that "alternative opinions" may exist, which should be also taken into consideration. However, the state accuser remained with his opinion. 

Having listened to the parties, the court retired and 30 minutes later passed a decision to satisfy the petition of the prosecutor's office and exclude the alternative examinations presented by the defence out of the list of proofs.

Magomed Magomedov stated a petition asking to bring expert Shipshin from Krasnodar for evidencing. 

The court has again ignored the reasons of the accused party. 

Biyakay Magomedov asked to request statistics from the bureau of forensic-medical examination for Dagestan about beatings and torturing of detainees in the period of 2003-2009. "In my article 'Robots with Shoulder Strips' I wrote that law enforcers torture their detainees. Experts believe that what I wrote is a lie; I want to show through real figures that our guards of order make use of not quite legal methods to affect detainees," he said.

The judge has satisfied his petition. 

Then, Magomed Magomedov moved a petition to request the methodology of the linguistic examination of the materials of the edition used by another expert - Sergey Fedyaev, which was made classified. 

Then, the court made a decision to postpone the session till March 16 in order to find out the procedure of requesting the document. 

Herman Kostrov, adviser of the Chairman of the Supreme Court of Dagestan, said, when asked to comment on the situation around the weekly, that he had found nothing illegal in its materials.

"The 'Chernovik' is one of the best newspapers in Dagestan. It has many disputable materials; not with everything I agree; however, it doesn't kindle any national, racial or religious enmity. Russia abounds in media and politicians who do it, but nobody worries," said Mr Kostrov reminding respective  statements of the head of the LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Hamlet Dzhamaludinov, head of the press service of the Prosecutor's Office of Dagestan and senior assistant of the Public Prosecutor, noted, in his turn, that such issues are in the competence of experts. "They examined the paper materials of the paper and found attributes of a crime; while the opinion of the prosecutor's office in this situation is insignificant," he said. 

Angela Martirosova, deputy head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, said that by virtue of her position she could not make any comments on the incident around the weekly. Federal Judge Gasankadi Dzhunaidiev from the Sovietskiy District of Makhachkala, was of the same opinion.

See earlier reports: ""Chernovik" case in Dagestan: court hears evidences," "MoJ of Dagestan obliges branch of "Edinaya Rossiya" to give data about its political board to "Chernovik"," "In Dagestan, "Chernovik" case not to go back to prosecutor's office."