Azerbaijan, Baku / Тrend corr K. Zarbliyeva / Court dismissed the petition to close the criminal case for the chief editor of the Azerbaijani Khural newspaper Avaz Zeynalli.
At a trial at Narimanov District Court in Baku on 20 November, Zeynalli was accused of stimulating national, racial or religious hatred (Article 283). Petition of Zeynalli's attorney was dismissed.
Zeynalli is accused of expressing sympathy for Adolph Hitler in preface to his translation of Hitler's Mein Kampf book. The book was translated into Azerbaijani and published on November of 2004.
The same year on 8 December Zeynalli was called to the Central Office for Criminality at the Interior Ministry. A criminal case for Zeynalli was filed on 9 December and was closed by the National Security Ministry on 26 February 2005, but in May of 2007 the case was resumed by the Prosecutor General.
According to Zeynalli, the court also dismissed the petition to make audio and video records of the trial.
On 28 November, witnesses will speak on the case.
On 5 October, the Ministry of National Security prohibited Zeynalli to leave Baku.