Today, the Baku Court of Appeal considered the appeal of a former employee of the state news agency AZERTAC Aygun Aliyeva about her unjustified dismissal from work.
In the appeal she asked to be reinstated in a job and paid compensation for the period of forced termination of her agency employment.
Her lawyer Bahruz Bayramov said in court that her dismissal was motivated by the fact that she did not perform her official duties properly, made mistakes in the texts.
In fact, she was dismissed from her job for a critical status in the social network, Facebook and municipality, the lawyer said.
For instance, Aygun Aliyeva wrote the following phrase in her profile due to the municipal elections: “Why should I go to vote? They haven’t even install a trash can.” After that, she was asked to write an explanatory note considering her post, as stated by Alieva herself. nearly”high treason”.
Alieva was also accused of a post where she wrote that she”gave birth to two children.” That was regarded as a violation of AZERTAC’s corporate ethics.
The lawyer pointed out that the journalist wrote in her personal profile, not on the official page of the agency, so the claims against her were not justified.
The defense pointed out that Alieva had worked in AZERTAC for more than 20 years and that there were no complaints on her professional activity.
Representative of AZERTAC, Mais Aliyev said that in 2019, Alieva wrote an explanatory note that if she repeated mistakes in her work again, she would write a letter of resignation.
However, Aliyeva said that she wrote the statement under pressure and threats.
“I worked as an issue editor for three years, and before that I was the head of the department. I replaced the editor for six months and worked as a special correspondent in Spain. And now they say that I can’t cope with my work?
Also, for three years I worked as a presidential correspondent, collaborated with Mehriban-khanum, Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Cabinet of Ministers. If I am an illiterate correspondent, what was I doing there in this case?”, – Alieva previously told the Turan news agency.
In the end, the court did not sustain the appeal.
Lawyer Bayramov said that a cassation appeal would be filed with the Supreme Court against this decision.
He pointed out that Articles 6 (right to fair trial) and 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention of Human Rights and Freedoms were violated in relation to Aliyeva.
According to the lawyer, the journalist is persecuted for freedom of expression and publications on Facebook.
Earlier, deputy director of AZERTAC Dagbeyi Ismayilov told Turan that Aygun Aliyeva was not fired because of a post on Facebook.
According to him, Aygun Aliyeva worked as a technical employee, and then as a head of the department and a special correspondent. “She always sent the information behind schedule, prepared it incorrectly, unprofessionally. Because of this, there were many disputes, we held many meetings, and once even fined her. The court objectively studied the issue and made a fair verdict,” he noted commenting on the decision of the court of first instance.
Source: Turan News Agency