In Dagestan, court refuses to reconsider Natalia Krainova's case

On March 11, Federal Judge of the Sovietskiy District of Makhachkala Gasankadi Dzhunaidiev rejected the application lodged by Natalia Krainova, a journalist of the local weekly "Novoe Delo" (New Business), who asked to revise the verdict of April 22, 2009, prescribing her to pay, together with her colleague Svetlana Anokhina, 24,000 roubles in equal shares to Zaur Gaziev, a journalist of the newspaper "Free Republic".

The incident burst out in winter of 2009, when Ms Krainova published her column in the weekly "Novoe Delo" "What I Like Svetlana Anokhina For". Gaziev disliked the phrase "everyone understands that Gaziev does… illegal things," therefore he went to court for protection of his honour and dignity and compensation of moral damage. He had sued Anokhina in a similar way.

On April 22, 2009, the Federal Court of the Sovietskiy District of Makhachkala satisfied the claim and ruled to collect in Gaziev's favour 24,000 roubles jointly from Krainova and Anokhina. Later Krainova addressed the panel on civil cases of the Supreme Court of Dagestan, but the panel left her cassation complaint without satisfaction.

The cassation definition said that "the phrase in the article 'What I Like Svetlana Anokhina For' that Zaur Gaziev does… 'illegal things' discredited the honour and dignity of the claimant, since the respondent had failed to prove the illegality of his actions."

Ms Krainova told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that she had presented to the court a set of Gaziev's publications, where he had offended, according to her story, many people; however, the court disregarded her facts and arguments. The only proof of his actions' illegality, which would have satisfied the court, could have been a judicial judgement that Gaziev had broken the law.

"On October 6, 2009, the Sovietskiy District Court recognized by its decision on collection of 100,000 roubles in favour of Anokhina that our opponent had broken the law. With the account of the newly-opened circumstance, I asked to cancel to cancel the decision of April 22, 2009, but today the court again disregarded my arguments," said Krainova.

See earlier reports: "Dagestan: witnesses are interrogated on "execution list"," "Kamalov: authors of leaflets with "execution list" know Dagestan specificities," "In Dagestan, court fines "Novoe Delo" journalists for their reviews."