DUSHANBE, February 26, 2014, Asia-Plus – The head of Legal Consortium of Tajikistan Rahmatillo Zoyirov, who is also the leader of the Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan (SDP), believes that court’s judgment against newspaper Asia Plus and its editor Olga Tutubalina is no the result of incompetence of judge but an order from above.

“I do not think that the court made such a decision due to its incompetence, because judges had enough time to study the case thoroughly.  I think that the court just implemented an order from above,” Zoyirov told Asia-Plus in an interview.

According to him, no one of plaintiffs is party to civil procedure legislation and this case.  “Therefore, acceptance of this statement of claim by the court for consideration was illegal.  Accordingly, the judgment is also illegal,” noted SDP leader. “Moreover, the plaintiffs who demanded moral compensation failed to produce any substantial proofs.  Besides, no specific names were mentioned in the article, except Bozor Sobir.  Therefore, only Bozor Sobir has the moral right to file lawsuit.”