DUSHANBE, February 14, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Nusratullo Asadullo, the judge from a court in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district taking in trial on the case of the Dushanbe independent newspaper, Asia-Plus , and Anvar Taghoymurodov, head of the Interior Ministry organized crime control department (UBOP), has dismissed counterclaim filed by Asia-Plus against the plaintiff.

The preliminary hearing for the lawsuit against the Asia-Plus newspaper began today and the newspaper editor Marat Mamadshoyev filed the counterclaim against Taghoymurodov for protection of the newspaper’s business reputation, asking for 15,000 somoni in damages from the UBOP chief.

The judge dismissed the counterclaim, noting that Marat Mamadshoyev did not have the right to file suit on behalf of the newspaper.  “He should have a letter of attorney from the Asia-Plus editor-in-chief Umed Babakhanov for that,” the judge said.

The hearing is postponed until February 24.

We will recall that the UBOP chief Anvar Taghoymurodov in late January filed the defamation lawsuit in the court in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district against the Asia-Plus newspaper, asking for 1 million somoni as compensation for moral damage caused by article published by the newspaper.  The Interior Ministry high-ranking official who filed the lawsuit as private citizen claims that the article entitled “Investigation or Inquisition?” printed in the newspaper in December defames his honor and reputation.

The article published in the December 21, 2010 edition of the newspaper told of the use of torture on some suspects by UBOP agents in Sughd province.