Azerbaijani court acquits Internet user in "Facebook case"

On January 30, the Astara District Court of Azerbaijan found Mikail Talybov, a local resident and a user of the social network Facebook, after a re-examination of his case, innocent of slandering the Closed Joint-Stock Company (CJSC) "AccessBank".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 30, 2013, the Astara District Court, after considering the lawsuit lodged by the Astara Branch of the CJSC "AccessBank" against its former employee Mikail Talybov, found him guilty under Article 147.1 (slander) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan and sentenced him to one year of correctional labour. The court also obliged Talybov to post a refutation on the Facebook. On November 25, 2013, the Shirvan Court of Appeal upheld Talybov's complaint, overturned the verdict of the first instance court and returned the case to the Astara District Court for reconsideration.

"Representatives of the respondent – the Branch of the CJSC 'AccessBank' – failed to appear at the retrial; and the judge passed an acquittal," Khalid Agaliev, a lawyer from the Media Rights Institute (MRI), who represents Talybov's interests in court, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In his view, it is absurd to punish a person for his statements posted on his page on the social network. Agaliev has reminded that Talybov's story had received the appellative name of the "Facebook case", because a person was prosecuted for speaking out on social networks.

Let us remind you that initially the Astara District Court found slander in the following Talybov's entries on the Facebook: "AccessBank is an unfair bank" and "AccessBank increases its political pressure in Azerbaijan, causing discontent of the population with the government."