Today (20 August) a preliminary court hearing on the lawsuit filed against court decision which was adopted about Sergey Strekalin, who was accused of stabbing “Azadlig” newspaper journalist Agil Khalil, was conducted in the Baku Appellate Court under the chairmanship of Judge Gail Mammadov.
During the hearing Khalil’s lawyer Elchin Sadigov put forth two motions. In his first motion, Sadigov asked the court to conduct the investigation over again, and in his second motion he asked the court to obtain the texts of all text messages exchanged between Agil Khalil and Sergey Strekalin from “Azercell” Company and submit them directly to the court. Prosecutor Maharram Mustafayev asked the judge not to fulfill the motions. The judge didn’t fulfill Sadigov’s motions, but said that the appeal will be considered.
The next hearing is scheduled to take place on 27 August at 1:00 p.m.
Sergey Strekalin was convicted on 15 July 2008 of stabbing “Azadlig” Newspaper correspondent Agil Khalil, and was sentenced to one year and six months imprisonment. Strekalin was found guilty under article 127.1 (intentional infliction of minor bodily harm) and article 234.1 (illegal possession of narcotics) of the Criminal Code. Claiming that Khalil wasn’t stabbed by Strekalin, his lawyer Elchin Sadigov appealed to the Appellate Court to justify Strekalin.