Advocates of editor-in-chief of "Nastoyascheye Vremya" submit supervisory complaint to Supreme Court of Dagestan

Today, the defence of Milrad Fatullaev, the editor-in-chief of the weekly "Nastoyascheye Vremya" (Present Time), have filed a supervisory complaint to the Supreme Court of Dagestan against the decision of the Kirov District Court of Makhachkala, which had upheld the decision of the first instance that found the journalist guilty of a failure to prevent slander in relation to the head of the republic.

On April 26, the Magistrate Court of the Kirov District of Makhachkala fined Milrad Fatullaev by 10,000 roubles for the fact of publication by his edition of defamatory information about Magomedsalam Magomedov. On May 10, the trusted representatives of the weekly filed an appeal complaint to the Kirov District Court of Makhachkala. However, on May 23, the appellate instance upheld the decision of the first instance.

The advocates ask to cancel the decision of the above Magistrate Court and "to stop the administrative case against Milrad Fatullaev and the decision of the above District Court, which had upheld the decision to dismiss his complaint for the lack of the attributes of the offence."

The reason for the whole litigation was the material by Nadira Isaeva "Caucasus in the Lead", published by the "Nastoyascheye Vremya" on February 3 and stating that the president of Dagestan Magomedsalam Magomedov had received a flash memory device from the so-called "forest people" and in retaliation he introduced the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime in the village of Gimry, Untsukul District. The district administration, as had been stated by Mustapa Genzhekhanov, believed that the information was a slander.