Today, 15 January, in the Baku Appellate Court, under the chairmanship of Judge Ilham Asadov, a court hearing was held on the lawsuit of a group of journalists (Elchin Hasanov, Seymur Haziyev, Abulfaz Gurbanli and Eltaj Panahov) who wanted to have a lawyer provide by the government file a cassation complaint in the Supreme Court on their behalf. The judge rejected the journalists’ lawsuit. Elchin Hasanov told this to the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety.
In September 2008 these journalists sent an information inquiry to the Sabail District Police Department Police Unit #39. They appealed to the Sabail District Court asking to consider “the refusal to respond to the information inquiry illegal.” The journalists, whose appeal was not fulfilled by this court, appealed to the Appellate Court. Their appeal was also rejected. The journalists then sought to file a cassation complaint and therefore filed a lawsuit in the Appellate Court for the government to provide them a lawyer for the defense of their cassation complaint on the account of the government. The lawyer that supported the journalists throughout the other trials was not a member of Azerbaijan’s Bar Association and therefore legally unable to file the cassation complaint.