14.09.2017, Russia.
The first session of the Troitsky Court of the city of Moscow in the case Sergey Kurginyan vs. the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung was postponed because the defendant failed to appear in court, a Rossa Primavera Information Agency’s correspondent reports on September 14.
“The summons was served in Munich (and a confirmation letter received), but defendant’s representatives are not present”, S. Kurginyan’s lawyer said.
“The case cannot be trialed in the defendant’s absence,” Judge Vladislav Karmashev said. Next session has been scheduled on October 30.
Another summons is to be sent to Munich.
By the beginning of the session, German journalists came to the Troitsky Court, “simply to attend”, the Rossa Primavera Information Agency’s correspondent reports.
In response to public statements made by Süddeutsche Zeitung that he is the leader of a “red fascist sect”, Sergey Kurginyan submitted a claim to defend his honor and dignity to the Troitsky Court of Moscow.
In his claim, Kurginyan demands that the information that he is the leader of a “red fascist sect” must be recognized to be untrue and to discredit his honor, dignity and business reputation; that the defendant must be obliged to deny the information by publishing an appropriate retraction; and that a compensation for moral harm must be paid by the defendant.
Since the defendant is a foreign legal entity without any representation in Russia, the claim was submitted to the registry of a German precinct court to be further given to the defendant, according to the Hague Convention of 15 November, 1965, on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters. To our knowledge, according to the international law, a representative of the German newspaper received an appropriate court claim along with summons to appear at the court session in Russia.
Editorial comment
Western propagandists showed outright defiance against the Russian civil society reaching a new level of impudence in their restless anti-Russian propaganda. Such actions made by foreign journalists must find condemnation among members of the Russian civil society of any beliefs. Failure to condemn the Germans newspaper’s defiance and impudence would mean accepting such methods of discrediting an opponent.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
