Journalist's Complaint against Prosecutor's Office Rejected

Bakı / 19.09.18 / Turan: Baku Court of Appeal rejected the complaint of journalist Avaz Zeynalli against the prosecutor's office. The journalist demanded that the warning issued to him by the prosecutor's office be declared illegal.

A. Zeynalli told Radio Azadliq about the details of the trial. According to him, it was in connection with his professional activities that he was summoned to the Prosecutor General's Office on January 26, where he was warned.

"This warning was made absolutely illegally and was intended to remove me from my activities.That's why I went to court," said Avaz Zeynalli. According to him, he requires the court to recognize as illegal the warning made by the prosecutor's office.

At first the complaint was considered and rejected at the Baku Administrative Economic Court No. 1.

Today, on September 19, the Baku Court of Appeal considered a complaint filed with the lower court.

At the trial, lawyers brought to the attention of the court that the warnings and interrogations of the journalist serve directly to move him away from his professional activities. All this is aimed at intimidating the journalist. According to A. Zeynalli, the lawyers demanded from the court that they recognize the warning of the Prosecutor General's Office unlawful, so that such actions would be no longer tolerated.

A representative of the Prosecutor General's Office asked to reject the complaint. The judges under the leadership of Judge Mirza Tagizadeh rejected the complaint.

A. Zeynalli does not agree with the decision and intends to apply to the Supreme Court, and then to the European Court.

The editor-in-chief of the newspaper Khural on January 26, 2018 was questioned at the Prosecutor General's Office, and then an official warning was made to him.

He told Radio Azadlig he was called in connection with his journalistic activities. According to him, the reason for the invitation was a status in the social networks from the interview of the director of Turan IA Mehman Aliyev.

"The status I was charged with was written on New Year's Eve, and I talked about the arrests of journalists Afgan Sadigov, Aziz Orujov, Afgan Mukhtarly and others and about the new wave of repression." The main reason for my call was the interview of Mehman Aliyev. I was told that with such statuses and interviews I confuse public opinion," Zeynalli said. --0--