Today, 23 July, a hearing was held in the Narimanov District Court, under the chairmanship of Judge Turgay Huseynov, on the criminal case against "Khural" Newspaper Chief Editor Avaz Zeynalli by the National Security Ministry due to Zeynalli’s translation and publication of Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf".
State Prosecutor Elfag Safarov said that evidence on the case has been investigated and demanded that Avaz Zeynalli be prosecuted under the article 283.1 (incitement of ethnic/national, social or religious hatred) of the CC and be fined in the amount of 1500.
A.Zeynalli said that this case is unfounded and he should be justified. He asked for the hearing to be rescheduled to familiarize himself with state prosecutor’s speech and to submit his speech to court in written form.
Judge T,Huseynov fulfilled the motion and scheduled the next hearing on this case for 29 July at 3:00 p.m.
In December 2004 the National Security Ministry instituted a criminal case under the article 283.1 (incitement of ethnic/national, social or religious hatred) of the CC of Azerbaijan Republic when Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" was published in Azeri, however the case was thrown out in February 2005 due to failure to prove that a crime was committed. Then in May 2007 due to the reprinting of this book Rustam Usubov, first deputy to the Prosecutor General, reopened this case and the case was sent to the National Security Ministry's Investigation Department. In August of the same year the investigation was concluded and case materials were sent to Narimanov District Court for consideration.