DUSHANBE, March 5, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- A court in Dushanbe’s Sino district resumed hearing over lawsuit filed by three judges against three Dushanbe independent newspapers Ozodagon , Farazh , and Asia-Plus on March 4.

Plaintiffs and lawyer Solehjon Jourayev who is the main defendant in the trial did not attended the meeting

Judge A. Safoyev acquainted representatives of the newspapers with the results of examination of articles published by them in January 2010.  The examination was conducted by researchers from the Institute of the Tajik Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences.

According to the examination findings, there are slanderous statements in a complaint by lawyer Solehjon Jourayev against the judges from the Supreme Court.

“The examination does not note that the newspapers printed slanderous statements against the judges,” the Asia-Plus editor Marat Mamadshoyev said.

Since the newspapers are not the main defendants in the trial, their representatives solicited the judge for holding of hearing with participation of plaintiffs and lawyer Jourayev who is the main defendant in this trial.

The judge adjourned the trial until March 14.

We will recall that three judges from the Tajik Supreme Court and a Dushanbe court filed lawsuits against Ozodagon , Farazh , and Asia-Plus on January 29, 2010.  The judges said the printed quotations in their most recent editions from a press conference in which a lawyer accused the judges of issuing unfair punishments.

In early January 2010, lawyer Solehjon Jourayev invited journalists to a press conference at which he said Judges Fakhriddin Dodometov, Nour Nourov, and Ulughbek Mamadshoyev had sentenced a group of 33 businessmen from the northern city of Isfara to long prison sentences despite weak evidence of their crimes.

The judges said on January 29 the newspapers did not ask them to comment and printed biased statements that have no basis.  They asked for 5.5 million somoni ($1.26 million) as compensation for the moral damage caused by the comments in the articles.

Judge Mamadshoyev said he filed the lawsuit as a private citizen because he thinks the newspapers ignored the media law.