Azerbaijan starts legal proceedings on defamation lawsuit against journalist

The Nariman District Court of Baku has held a preparatory court session on the case against Zabil Mugabiloglu, the editor-in-chief of the new website "Gunxeber.com" and the editor of the newspaper "Yeni Musavat", who is accused of defamation. The journalist's advocate has stated the claim is groundless. The judge has made a decided to postpone the court session because of the absence of the defendant.

The defence has filed a motion to dismiss the claim as "groundless and unlawful admission for consideration," advocate Elchin Sadygov has stated.

"We believe the article 'William Gadjiev's Attestation Bribe' published on May 30 was on the website 'Gunxeber.com' cannot be a reason for criminal prosecution of the editor-in-chief. The article contains no malicious defamation. The newspaper has published the material with reference to the particular sources. Although, the newspaper has refused to disclose the sources for reasons of safety," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has been told by the advocate.

Elchin Sadygov has noted that the newspaper has expressed its willingness to publish the opinion of the opposite side. "However, the plaintiff has decided to lodge a lawsuit directly against the editor-in-chief and made no attempts to contact the editor's office with requests for refutation," Elchin Sadygov has added.

The advocate believes that the lawsuit against Zabil Mugabiloglu has been lodged with the aim to punish him for bringing publicity to violations committed by district officials and to deter other journalists who highlight negative developments in the activities of the public agencies.

See earlier reports: "Azerbaijan: court starts hearing on merits the case of "Intellectual Citizen" Centre", "In Azerbaijan, Anar Mamedli's advocate appeals against verdict of guilty", "Elchin Shikhly: "Mirror" suspends its activities in Azerbaijan because of financial problems".