Dagestan's SC rejects claim to close "Chernovik"

The Supreme Court (SC) of the Republic of Dagestan (RD) has completed considering the civil case opened under the claim lodged by the territorial department of the "Roskomnadzor" (Russian Federal Agency for Supervising Mass Communications) and RD's Prosecutor's Office against the Limited Liability Company (LLC) "Freedom of Speech" with a demand to close the local weekly named "Chernovik" (Blueprint).

The SC of Dagestan has ruled to the reject the claim against the LLC "Freedom of Speech" (the founder of the "Chernovik" - comment of the "Caucasian Knot") demanding to stop the edition.

Let us remind you that the consideration of the case was suspended by the judge of the Supreme Court Khanmagomed Shikhgereyev in July 2009 because of the appointed forensic complex psychological-linguistic examination of the articles published by the weekly to be conducted by the Federal Centre of Forensic Examinations (FCFE) at the Ministry of Justice in Moscow.

"Despite the positive conclusion of authoritative scientists-experts of the FCFE about the absence of extremism attributes in publications of the 'Chernovik', the "Roskomnadzor" and the Prosecutor's office of the RD kept insisting that the edition should be stopped. Under the claimants' pressure that very expert-linguist Sergey Fediayev, who had already figured once in the criminal case against our journalists was again invited to the court. As we had expected, Fediayev stuck to his previous opinion," said Biyakai Magomedov, the lawyer of the "Chernovik".

After debates of the parties, the court retired to the consultation room and passed the decision to reject the claim of the "Roskomnadzor" and the Prosecutor's office of the RD. Besides, the court has ruled to collect from the Territorial Department of the "Roskomnadzor" 261,730 roubles in favour of the FCFE as payment for the examination, and 20,000 roubles - in favour of the LLC "Freedom of Speech", which was paid to lawyer Abdullah Magomedov for presenting the weekly's interests at the trial.