In Azerbaijan, court decides to force journalist Halil to trial

Today, the Nasiminskiy District Court of the capital of Azerbaijan, presided by Judge Shakhin Abdullaev, has continued the trial of Sergey Strekalin accused of inflicting a knife wound on March 13, 2008, to Agil Halil, a journalist of the "Azadlyg" (Freedom) newspaper. Strekalin is accused under Articles 127.1 ("Deliberate inflicting of minor health damage") and 234.1 ("Purchase or storage of drugs").

The suffered Agil Halil has not appeared in the courtroom again.

After consultations, Judge Shakhin Abdullaev made a decision on Agil Halil's reconduction to the trial. The police of the Nasiminskiy District of Baku was instructed to force Halil to the court. The next session was appointed to 10:30 a.m. on July 3.

In his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, journalist's advocate Sadygov has treated the decision of the court as contradictory to the law. As he said, according to the remedial legislation, a victim can be involved to evidencing "only after announcement of the indictment, defendant's speech and start of studying the proofs."

The advocate believes that all the actions of the investigation and the court are directed towards "driving away from responsibility of the officers of the Ministry of National Security (MNS), who stand behind the attack on Halil."