DUSHANBE, March 30, 2010, Asia-Plus — A court hearing over a lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) against the Dushanbe independent weekly
Millat
(Nation) was adjourned on March 29 until April 11.
The judge ordered the adjournment at request of defense lawyer Junaydullo Ibodov, the monitoring service of the National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (Nansmit) reported.
Junaydullo Ibodov noted that he had asked to adjourn the hearing because the weekly founder, Ms. Adolat Mirzo, was currently on business trip outside the country and she would return only on April 11.
We will recall that
Millat
faces libel charge. The MoA filed the defamation lawsuit against the weekly on January 28, 2010, demanding 1 million somoni (equivalent to some 229 U.S. dollars) in damages. The
Millat
editor Zohir Davlat noted in January that he was surprised because the offending report, published last December, was “short and purely factual, referring to investigations into corruption within the agriculture ministry that were carried out and published by parliament”. The ministry was accorded the right of reply in this case as well.
