DUSHANBE, April 13, 2010, Asia-Plus — Editors of three Dushanbe independent weeklies –
Asia-Plus
,
Farazh
and
Ozodagon
– state that hearing for a lawsuit, filed by the judges against the weeklies and lawyer Solijon Jourayev, is being held with serious violations.
They remarked this at a news conference in Dushanbe on April 13.
We will recall that court in Dushanbe’s Sino district is hearing the lawsuit against three independent publications. Three judges, including two from the Supreme Court, brought the libel action against the weeklies
Asia-Plus
,
Farazh
, and
Ozodagon
for their coverage of a press conference on corruption and bias in the judicial system. In mid-January, the journalists reported on the press conference in which lawyer Solijon Jourayev said the judges — Fakhriddin Dodometov, Nur Nurov, and Ulughbek Mamadshoev — had sentenced a group of 33 businessmen from the northern city of Isfara to long prison terms despite weak evidence of their crimes. The judges maintain that the printed allegations against them are false, and sued the papers for 5.5 million somoni ($1.26 million) in damages.
The
Asia-Plus
editor Marat Mamadshoyev says that if the hearing is being held in this manner in the future as well and Judge Amriddin Safoyev, who is taking in the trial, does not consider respondents’ applications, they will challenge the judge.
The
Farazh
editor Khurshed Niyozov noted that lawyer Solijon Jourayev, who is co-respondent with the lawsuit, had already expressed dissatisfaction with work of Judge Safoyev and challenged him. According to him, if the hearing is being held in this manner in the future as well, they will be forced to present the audio cassette containing a full conversation of judges Nur Nurov and Ulughbek Mamadshoev to media.
At the end of the news conference, the
Asia-Plus
editor Marat Mamadshoyev noted that it could not be ruled out that the lawsuit filed against the weeklies was a pressure on all media of the country.
