Today, court proceedings on the assault case of US citizen Amanda Erickson and British ciziten Celia Davies continued at Sabail District Court.
Judge Elchin Gurbanov presided over the hearing. The two women were viciously assaulted when they were walking home in June. Davies sustained a broken arm in the attack.
Defendants Adil Tagizadeh, Roman Hasanov, Vusal Gurbanov and Nazim Huseynov have been charged under Articles 221.2.1 and 127.1 of the Criminal Code: hooliganism committed by a group of persons and inflicting intentional minor bodily harm.
Davies’s legal representative Elchin Sadigov told Objective TV that the court provided the journalist with an interpreter. Last week’s hearing collapsed after the British Embassy objected to serious inaccuracies in the court-supplied translator’s interpretation. Sadigov expressed concern about deliberate mistranslation. For this hearing, Davies brought a freelance translator, the court did not allow him to work officially. He was able to pick up on inaccuracies in the official translation, which I raised as objections,” said Sadigov.
Celia Davies gave her testimony again. She reported that on the night of June 15th, she and Erickson were assaulted by 4 unknown persons. They were thrown to the ground and kicked by those persons. The journalist said that she didn’t see the faces of their attackers, and could not identify them.
“The accused persons claimed that they approached the women because they wanted to get acquainted with them, in direct contradiction to what they said during the last hearing, when they claimed that they wanted to help the women,”added the lawyer.
In addition to cooperating with local NGOs, IRFS employee Celia Davies and journalist Amanda Erickson have held trainings for journalists and civil society activists. Erickson has published articles in the Washington Post and New York Times, including one recently on the demolition of NGO director Leyla Yunus’ office.
The next court proceeding was scheduled for October 27.
Defendants Adil Tagizadeh, Roman Hasanov, Vusal Gurbanov and Nazim Huseynov have been charged under Articles 221.2.1 and 127.1 of the Criminal Code: hooliganism committed by a group of persons and inflicting intentional minor bodily harm.
Davies’s legal representative Elchin Sadigov told Objective TV that the court provided the journalist with an interpreter. Last week’s hearing collapsed after the British Embassy objected to serious inaccuracies in the court-supplied translator’s interpretation. Sadigov expressed concern about deliberate mistranslation. For this hearing, Davies brought a freelance translator, the court did not allow him to work officially. He was able to pick up on inaccuracies in the official translation, which I raised as objections,” said Sadigov.
Celia Davies gave her testimony again. She reported that on the night of June 15th, she and Erickson were assaulted by 4 unknown persons. They were thrown to the ground and kicked by those persons. The journalist said that she didn’t see the faces of their attackers, and could not identify them.
“The accused persons claimed that they approached the women because they wanted to get acquainted with them, in direct contradiction to what they said during the last hearing, when they claimed that they wanted to help the women,”added the lawyer.
In addition to cooperating with local NGOs, IRFS employee Celia Davies and journalist Amanda Erickson have held trainings for journalists and civil society activists. Erickson has published articles in the Washington Post and New York Times, including one recently on the demolition of NGO director Leyla Yunus’ office.
The next court proceeding was scheduled for October 27.