DUSHANBE, February 2, 2010, Asia-Plus – Nur Nurov and Ulughbek Mahmadshoev, judges from the Supreme Court of Tajikistan, and Fakhriddin Dodometov, judge from the Dushanbe city court, filed lawsuits against lawyer Solejon Jurayev and the Dushanbe independent weeklies –
Asia-Plus
,
Farazh
and
Ozodagon
– on January 29, 2010.
According to the
Asia-Plus
editor Marat Mamadshoev, the judges are asking for totaling 5.5 million somoni in damages after an open statement by lawyer Jurayev published in the weeklies’ editions on January 19 (
Farazh
and
Ozodagon
) and January 20 (
Asia-Plus
) allegedly insulted their honor and dignity.
The judges also ask to suspend activity of the mentioned media in legal form in accordance with Articles 142 and 143 of Tajikistan’s Code of Civil Procedure.
Lawyer Solehjon Jurayev recently released an open statement addressed to the president, chef prosecutor, the parliament and other government bodies, accusing the Supreme Court leadership of arbitrary decisions. The lawyer cited three criminal cases, including the case of a group of businessmen from the northern city of Isfara, as an example.
We will recall that the Supreme Court sentenced 31 Isfara businessmen, associates of the fugitive businessman Nizomkhon Jurayev, to long jail terms on June 10, 2009. The defendants were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 10 to 25 years.
Solehjon Jurayev also attached an audio cassette containing his conversation with judge Nur Nurov to the statement. During this conversation, Nurov reportedly said that he had passed unfair sentence on that case by order of his leadership.
Commenting on this situation, the
Asia-Plus
editor Marat Mamadshoev said on February 1 that they are currently studying the judges’ complaints. “It is to be noted that we did not add anything on our behalf while covering this case; we just published what the lawyer said during the consideration of the appeal against the Supreme Court’s verdict against the Isfara businessmen in the appeal court of the Supreme Court,” said Mamadshoev, “The court in Dushanbe’s Sino district is considering lawsuits filed by the judges and we are summoned for conversation on February 2. Only after that, it will be possible to say anything specific on this case.”
We will recall that Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported on January 29 that two weeks ago, lawyer Solejon Jurayev invited journalists to a press conference at which he said Judges Fakhriddin Dodometov, Nur Nurov, and Ulughbek Mahmadshoev had sentenced a group of businessmen from the northern city of Isfara to long prison sentences despite weak evidence of their crimes.
The judges said on January 29 that the newspapers did not ask them to comment and printed biased statements that have no basis.
Judge Mamadshoev told RFE/RL that he filed the lawsuit as a private citizen because he thinks the newspapers ignored the media law.
Zafar Sufi, the chief editor of
Ozodagon
, said the press conference was, of course, one-sided but the newspapers are prepared to also print responses from the judges.
