Azerbaijani Court rejects journalist Agil Halil's claim

On July 17, the Nasiminskiy District Court of Baku under presidency of Judge Ikram Shirinov considered and rejected the claim lodged by Agil Halil, an employee of the "Azadlyg" newspaper, on illegality of termination of the criminal case initiated on the fact of his beating on February 22 this year committed in the Olive Grove.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Elchin Sadygov, journalist's advocate that the trial was closed. According to Mr Sadygov, the state prosecutor Alyamdar Mamedov asked the court to reject the claim.

The claimant now plans to lodge an appeal complaint.

We remind you that on February 22 in the Olive Grove, Mr Halil was making a report on an illegal land transaction and made some photos. It turned out that the photographed persons were high-ranking employees of the Ministry of National Security (MNS) of Azerbaijan. According to the journalist, these persons attacked and beat him.

Afterwards, pressure was exerted on the journalist to force him to recall his application to the police; he was even promised money for that. After the journalist had refused, on March 13 he was attacked by two unknown persons, and one of them inflicted a knife wound on him in the heart area.

However, during the investigation held by the State Office of Public Prosecutor, the political pretext of the case was rejected.

According to the version of the prosecutor's office, the attack on Halil was made as an ordinary quarrel - the offender Sergey Strekalin had had allegedly a grudge against Halil for certain abusive sms-messages that Halil allegedly sent to him. Under the version of the investigation, Strekalin was a gay and had intimate relations with Halil. On April 7, the TV Channels demonstrated videos with evidences of Strekalin and two more homosexuals who have stated non-traditional sexual preferences of the journalist.

On July 15, the Nasiminskiy District Court of Baku sentenced Sergey Strekalin, accused of knifing Agil Halil, to 18 months of imprisonment in a general custody colony. Mr Halil asserts that Strekalin never attacked him.