DUSHANBE, February 17, 2014, Asia-Plus – A trial in a lawsuit over an article written by the
Asia-Plus
newspaper editor Olga Tutubalina was adjourned on February 17 until February 21. The judge ordered the adjournment following request of
Asia-Plus
’s defense lawyer Shuhrat Qudratov.
We will recall that five Tajik creative unions and thee separate individuals have filed a lawsuit against
Asia-Plus
newspaper editor Olga Tutubalina in the court in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district. They ask for 200,000 somoni as compensation for moral damage.
The case stems from the article by Olga Tutubalina published in the newspaper on May 29, 2013. In her article about Tajik intelligentsia, Ms. Tutubalina used citation from Lenin’s letter to Maxim Gorky of September 15, 1919, “The intellectual forces of the workers and peasants are growing and getting stronger in their fight to overthrow the bourgeoisie and their accomplices, the educated classes, the lackeys of capital, who consider themselves the brains of the nation. In fact they are not its brains but its shit.”
Plaintiffs say the article by Olga Tutubalina insulted honor and dignity as well as reputation of a large social group of people and caused moral damage to them. Besides, they consider that Ms. Tutubalina distorted Lenin’s words in her article.
For her part, Ms. Tutubalina said that she did not mean to insult anyone. At the same time, she insists she has nothing to apologize for.
