Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. I.Alizadeh / The Court rejected the petition brought by the editor-in-chief of the newspapers Gundalik Azerbaijan and Realni Azerbaijan, Eynulla Fatullayev to invite Elmar Mammadyarov, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, to testify.
Earlier, Mammadyarov said he had submitted a statement to the National Security Ministry. Ashurov submitted a petition to invite Mammadyarov to justify as a witness. A criminal case has been brought against Fatullayev by the Azerbaijani Security Ministry. Chingiz Shukurov, the state prosecutor, was against Mammadyarov testifying in court. The court did not satisfy the petition.
Eynulla Fatullayev was charged because of articles published in his newspapers which sparked a lawsuit brought by Tatyana Chaladzeh, head of the State Committee on Refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDP) on 20 April. Fattulayev was sentenced to two and half year's imprisonment at the decision of Yasamal District Court of Baku City.
The National Security Ministry brought another criminal case over the fact on 16 May on terror threat. Fattuleyev was transferred from Bail Investigation Cell to National Security Ministry's investigation cell. Fatullayev was sentenced to 3 months of imprisonment with contravening Article 214.1 (terror threat) and 283.2.2 (national, race hostility) of the Criminal Code in July.