On 1 April Khatai District Court of Baku, under presiding judge Seadet Salimova, held a hearing on the lawsuit initiated by the ANS Press Publishing House against Yeni Musavat newspaper and aznews.az website, Yeni Musavat lawyer Vagif Huseyn reported to the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) on April 2.
According to Huseyn, aznews.az representative did not attend the hearing.
“The article, over which we have been sued, was published with reference to aznews.az website. Therefore we told the jury that it was wrong to sue our newspaper for this article. The judge scheduled the next hearing for April 22, 3pm” said Yeni Musavat newspaper.
Background: ANS Press sued the Yeni Musavat over the article ”ANS stopped publication of its two magazines” which was published in January 1, 2013 issue of the newspaper. ANS requires that Yeni Musavat and aznews.az provide refutation and pay 20,000AZN and 100,000AZN in compensation respectively.