Hot News 2005

July 15

A well-known lawyer sent a formal letter to the UN Human Rights

Well-known lawyer Solidjon Djurayev sent a formal letter to the UN Human Rights Committee, claiming recent court orders contradict the International Law. In its turn the Committee recommended the Tajik Government to bring all court decisions in line with the International Law.

In the letter the journalist underlined court orders over journalists, charged with insulting honor and dignity of Namoz Amirov, a judge for the City Court.

  In March 2004, Vecherniy Dushanbe (VD) weekly published an article “There is justice over judges” by Djurayev, who argued that Ashurov received unjustified 20-years prison sentence from judge Amirov. The court ordered Djurayev and the paper to pay 5000 somoni (approx. $1700) as a compensation for moral damages.

The lawyer and VD editorial board requested famous lawyers to examine the above publication and make an expert report. The lawyers published their expert report as an article, entitled “Justice or big lie – 2?” in Business i politika newspaper. The 14 July article proved Djurayev to be right. In particular the article said the court orders over VD “were wrong, because the law prohibits to prosecute and harass journalists and media for publishing and distributing information.”

Djurayev appealed the order to all possible court instances, but the order still remains in force. His latest attempt was UN Human Rights Committee.

Contents