DUSHANBE, September 13, 2013, Asia-Plus – Court hearing on the petition of group of intelligentsia against Asia-Plus newspaper and Olga Tutubalina was held on Friday, 13 September.

Olga Tutubalina’s representative, Inayat Inayatov, reported that during today’s preliminary hearing, the Court rejected defendants’ petition on declining the claim, and left the issue of the plaintiff’s petition open.

Mr. Inayatov says that he asked the court to reject the claim, since the organizations and the persons, who have submitted it, are not appropriate plaintiffs. According to the lawyer, these organizations’ bylaws do not say that they can be plaintiffs for the intelligentsia, and persons cannot speak for them either. However, despite the arguments, the Court denied this petition.

Mr. Inayatov says: “After three days we will receive Court’s decision on the matter in writing, and perhaps will review the possibility of appeal. It depends on the justification for declining our petition.”

He also reported that the plaintiff representatives also appealed to the Judge with a petition, where they asked to hold a linguistic examination of Ms. Tutubalina’s material. The issue was left open by the Court, which, according to Mr. Inayatov, means that the Court will come back to the issue.