Trial on the claim of Azerbaijani MIA head against human rights activist Yunus postponed

The preparatory session of the Nasiminskiy District Court of Baku on the claim of Ramil Usubov, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) against human rights activist Leila Yunus, due to take place today, on January 13, was re-appointed on January 23.

Isakhan Ashurov, Ms Yunus' advocate, has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the re-appointment was caused by his participation in some other trial. Mr Ashurov also said that he had a meeting with a claimant's representative; however, he gave no details of the meeting.

We remind you that Ramil Usubov, head of the MIA of Azerbaijan, had lodged a claim against Leila Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD). The reason was the interview, placed on December 3 on the Internet portal www.day.az.

Ramil Usubov had concluded that the text entitled "In most cases, related to defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms the Azerbaijani courts make illegitimate and unjustified decisions" contains slander on the police and inflicts damage to their business reputation. The Minister asks for a refutation to be published, Leila Yunus to apologize before the MIA and pay 100,000 manats (about 120,000 US dollars) as compensation for moral damage.

The IPD Director said that in the interview that became the subject of the claim, she told about the course of litigation on the case about kidnapping of minor sisters Nailia and Reikhan Medzhidov in the Devechinskiy District, which was monitored by the IPD under the project funded by the Council of Europe.

In particular, Ms Yunus had stated that the court ignored the evidences of the defendant in the case Tvakkyul Ismailov who asserted that he had handed over the two kidnapped Medzhidov sisters and another woman from the Devechinskiy District - Dilyafruz Dashtieva - to Mamedmusa Guseinov, deputy head of the Devechinskiy District Police Department. Leila Yunus treated negatively the fact that the court did not invite this senior police officer for evidencing. In this connection, Ms Yunus reminded about evidences at trial on the case of Gadzhi Mamedov, Senior Operative Officer of the MIA's Criminal Search, that "his gang was just a fragment of the huge criminal octopus in the uniform of the MIA."

The "Caucasian Knot" has already reported that the Federation of Human Rights Organizations of Azerbaijan made a statement calling the Nasiminskiy Court to reject the claim of the MIA head for lack of grounds.

In its turn, the Monitoring Group of Human Rights Organizations of Azerbaijan wants to meet Minister Ramil Usubov and settle his conflict with Leila Yunus without the trial. Human rights activist applied for a meeting back on January 10, but so far he gave no answer.