Azerbaijani Claim against Zhirinovsky Rejected

On June 10 the Moscow City Court confirmed the ruling reached by the Leshchinsky district Court on 24 August 2009 which had rejected a claim filed by Azeris in Russia organization against the leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

According to the claimant Zhirinovsky has used offensive words and expressions when writing about Azerbaijani people in his LDPR: The Final March to the South book. Namely, he "says that the Azerbaijani are not a nation but rather a tribe, he links the Azerbaijani to the Armenian Genocide," reports RIA Novosti.

The claimant had asked the court to make Zhirinovsky publicly deny the information found in the book that insults the dignity and honor of the Azerbaijanis, ban the book from selling, and fine him about 10 million rubles as a compensation for the moral offence caused to the claimant.

According to Semyon Ilyaskin, Zhirinovsky's lawyer, the book does not humiliate anyone, and the claim is not well-founded. Besides, in his words, this case is what he calls "only part of the judicial red tape against Zhirinovsky."