Preparatory Hearing on So-called Facebook Case Postponed to November 25

The preparatory meeting on the so-called "Facebook case", which was held on November 14 in the Shirvan Court of Appeal, has been postponed. This was motivated by the fact that the documents of the lawyers of one of the parties - the bank Accessbank were not in order, according to the Media Rights Institute. The preparatory meeting was postponed to November 25.

The appeal was filed by a resident of the Astara region Mikail Talibov, who was sentenced to one year of corrective labor with 20 % of the salary for defamation in July 2013.

The reason for punishment of Talibov was his criticism of AccessBank, where he worked. Considering his dismissal illegal, he created a page on Facebook called "Accessbank-Haqs?zbank" (Accessbank - Unfair Bank).

In turn, the bank went to court, which found libelous the phrases "Accessbank - Unfair Bank", "Money earned in Azerbaijan acts against Azerbaijan", "Accessbank increasing political pressure on Azerbaijan, causing discontent among the population," and "The bank takes a bribe of AZN 5,000 for a loan of AZN 50,000."

The court ordered Talibov to issue a retraction on Facebook.

This case is significant because Talibov was the first victim of the amendments adopted by the Parliament on May 14 to the legislation covering criminal penalties for libel and insult on the Internet as is envisaged for the media.

This verdict has been strongly condemned by the Media Rights Institute (MRI).

"This decision is alien to democratic principles and contrary to the essence of the Constitution that provides for freedom of expression", MRI stated.

MRI considers the decision of the court as a serious threat to freedom of expression on the Internet and calls on the government to pass a law abolishing criminal penalties for defamation.

Recall that during the debate in Parliament over the document, representatives of the government and the parliament itself argued that sanctions will not touch the statements in the social networks, and will only apply to online media. - 03V06 ---