Today, 1 December, a preliminary hearing on the lawsuit of Assistant Director of School #21 Zohra Yusubova against “Gundalik Baki” Newspaper was held in the Yasamal District Court, under the chairmanship of Khagani Mammadov.
Bakixkhan Yusifov was authoritative representative of of the plaintiff. “Gundalik Baki” Newspaper founder and Editor-in-chief Habil Valiyev and assistant Editor-in-chief Uzeyir Jafarov participated in the hearing as the defendant party. Plaintiff’s representative demanded that the preliminary hearing be postponed stating that the defendants did not have their IDs and warrant of attorney with them. The judge fulfilled the motion and postponed the preliminary hearing until 12 December 11:00 a.m.
The lawsuit stems from the article entitled "5th grader raped," which was published on 7 November 2008 issue # 203 (274) of “Gundalik Azerbaijan” newspaper. It was stated in the article that fifth grader was raped in school #21 and the school leader ship concealed this fact. Assistant Director of School #21 Zohra Yusubova appealed to court claiming that the article is degrading to honor and dignity and damaging to business image.
In the lawsuit the plaintiff demands that the newspaper be closed, that the editorial pay 10,000 for moral damages, and that the author of the article, pay a 15,000 AZN fine."