HEARING ON APPEAL OF EDUCATIONAL EXPERT HELD

Hearing on the appeal of the educational expert Alovsat Osmanli was held in the Baku Court of Appeals on September 22nd, 2010. The hearing was presided over by Judge Hilal Khalilov.

The representative of the Institute for Educational Problems (IEP) claimed that the article in question has damaged the business image of the Institute.  Therefore, the appeal is unfounded.

Osmanli’s lawyer Isakhan Ashurov told the Judge that Osmanli’s main goal is to drop  the completed part of the lawsuit and to recognize the violation of Articles 6 and 10 of European Convention by the first instance court.

Osmanli said that his article was only of critical character and he didn’t slander anyone.

The judge offered a truce agreement to both sides and granted them additional time to reach an agreement.

The Judge scheduled the next hearing for 4:15 pm, September 27th.
BACKGROUND
Nasimi District Court partially ruled on the lawsuit on June 2nd and demanded that the defendant apologize and publish a refutation in the next edition of Azadlig newspaper, but did not demand a compensation claim in the amount of 50,000 AZN.
Institute for Educational Problems Director Abdulla Mehrabov appealed to the court claiming that the opinions written about IEP in the article “Merdanov’s black-hundreds,” published on the 2nd of February, 2010, in Azadlig newspaper by Osmanli, damaged his business image. He demanded that the defendant publish a refutation, apologize to the Institute and its employees and pay 50 000 AZN compensation