EYNULLA FATULLAYEV ASKS THAT PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION SOCIO-POLITICAL DEPARTMENT HEAD BE CALLED TO COURT

Today in the Grave Crimes Court, under the chairmanship of Judge Mehdi Asadov, the trial for “Gundalik Azerbayjan” and “Realny Azerbayjan” newspapers’ founder and chief editor Eynulla Fatullayev continued.
During the hearing, Fatullayev’s lawyer Isakhan Ashurov told that court that he protests against the expert assessment of the article “Aliyevs are Going to War,” which was conducted by Azerbaijan’s Academy of Science. Ashurov emphasized the importance of conducting an expert political and linguistic examination not in Azerbaijan, but in Russia.
After this Eynulla Fatullayev said that the footage of a conversation between him and Professor Aydin Hajiyev, which was used against the chief editor during the investigation, was a montage. According to Fatullayev, Hajiyev was sent to speak to him by National Security Ministry Administration head Farhad Vahabov. Hajiyev himself told this to Fatullayev. Fatullayev also said that the National Security Ministry called for the chief editor to stop writing against the government. In the event that this does not occur, Fatullayev was told that the same fate as Huseyn Abdullayev awaits him. (Abudllayev was a Milli Mejlis deputy who was accused of fighting with another deputy in the Milli Mejlis. After this he was arrested, all his businesses were taken from him and he was deprived of his deputy mandate. He is currently in Europe.) In connection with this, Ashurov petitioned for Hajiyev to come to court as a witness and for the video montage to be introduced to the court. State Prosecutor Chingiz Shukurov however told the court that the footage of the conversation with Fatullayev was not a montage; therefore Ashurov’s petition should not be fulfilled.
After this, Fatullayev introduced a petition for Presidential Administration Socio-Political department head Ali Hasanov to be called to court as a witness. Fatuallyev said that Hasanov gave interview in which he claimed that it was necessary to arrest staff members from Fatullayev’s newspapers and other newspapers. One week after this, Fatuallyev was arrested.
Fatuallyev also introduced a petition for Shahbaz Khudoglu, “Gundalik Azerbayjan” newspaper staff member Natig Javadli, and Ali Abbasov, chief editor of the journal “Azerbayjan ve Mir,” which was located in the same building as Fatullayev’s newspaper, to testify. All of these people were interrogated in the National Security Ministry.
The court board then announced a brief break to discuss all of the petitions. Returning from the recess, Judge Asadov announced that the court decided to only fulfill the petition calling for Aydin Hajiyev to be called to the court as a witness.
Then the process of listening to witnesses continued. BP Company representative Ilgar Nuruzade, Mortgage Fund representative Murad Heydarov, and two brothers, Shahriyar and Intigam Alsanov, who sell newspapers, testified. Heydarov and Nuruzade gave the same testimony. They said that they received in their email inboxes an article about targets of Iran in Azerbaijan in the event of a war between the U.S. and Iran. Nuruzade said he was alarmed to find the BP-Azerbaijan company among the targets, and thus appealed to the National Security Ministry. Heydarov testified that although the Mortgage Fund was not a target named in the article, the majority of his relatives work at places listed in the article, thus he also appealed to the National Security Ministry.
The Aslanov brothers were asked about how they kept track of the sale of Fatuallyev’s newspapers. They said they kept records in a regular old notebook.
The next hearing on this case will take place on 26 October 2007 at 10 a.m.