Azerbaijan: consideration of appeals on case MIA vs. Kerimov postponed

The today's session of the Baku Appeal Court under chairmanship of Abid Abdinbekov on the case "MIA of Azerbaijan versus Eyub Kerimov, editor-in-chief of the 'Femida-007' newspaper" lasted just for a couple of minutes. The reason was the intention of the respondent to lodge a cassation complaint against rejection by the Baku Appeal Court of his petitions put forward at the preparatory session and asking to return the case to the first instance court for running a repeated investigation.

In reply to Kerimov's statement about his intention to lodge a cassation complaint, Judge Abdinbekov said that according to the procedural legislation the time is provided for this purpose "within one month." According to the judge, this period is counted from the date of preparatory session at the Baku Appeal Court, that is, from April 8.

In this context, the judge appointed the hearings on May 6.

"The MIA exerts every effort to discredit me in the eyes of the public; I try to defend, although it is very difficult in today's conditions," Mr Kerimov has noted, making his comments on today's session.

According to the journalist, the litigation tells on his creative work: "I'm a lawyer by education, and I defend myself. Therefore, a lot of time is spent on preparation for and participation in court sessions."

At the same time, he emphasized that the pressure exerted on him would not influence his professional work and his civil stand. "Despite anything, I am and will go on speaking out and writing the truth about negative phenomena in the work of law enforcement bodies. My materials are based on facts. I criticize but I do not offend and slander anybody," he said.