Head of the Renaissance-Capital company Ismoil Rajabov filed a libel lawsuit to Firdavsi regional court against Hairullo Mirsaidov, correspondent of Asia-Plus newspaper, and representative of the Iranian Vitana company Hairullo Husainov.
In his interview to AP Rajabov’s lawyer Shuhrat Shodiev said that head of Renaissance-Capital urges to bring the two to responsibility under article 135 part 3 (Untrue accusation of a person of committing grievous crime) of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan.
“On December 23, 2010 and April 24, 2012 Asia-Plus newspaper published two articles entitled “Relatives of respected people” and “Relatives of respected people 2” in which head of the company was accused of raider capture of property of the Iranian Vitana,” Shodiev has said.
However, he said, on December 27, 2011, long before the publication of the second article, Ismoil Rajabov was found not guilty under all three articles – 246 (misappropriation of credit funds), 268 (illegal use of funds) and 340 (forgery) of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan.
“In April Asia-Plus published another article saying that prosecutor’s office was going to appeal against the court’s decision. However, Rajabov’s acquittal came into force on March 6 this year,” the lawyer reported.
At the same time, the author of “Relatives of respected people” articles, journalist Hairullo Mirsaidov, said he is ready for the hearings. “There was no slander in my articles. I used information I got from the press conference which was initiated in December 2010 by the Iranian Vitana and the Iranian embassy and which was held in Sharqi Ozod complex,” the journalist has said.
Mirsaidov said he decided to write the second article when criminal proceedings were launched against managers of Bahtier & Co company. Managers of the company were accused of making fake documents and fraud. “Representative of the Iranian company Huseinov said these and other firms were front companies controlled by Rajabov and were created to deal with raider capture. By the way, Huseinov also said that the Prosecutor General’s Office was about to appeal against Rajabov’s acquittal,” the journalist said.
In his article “Relatives of respected people” the reporter wrote that Renaissance-Capital company captured the property of the Iranian Vitana but there was no response from law enforcement structures as head of the Renaissance-Capital is relative of a high-ranked government official.
