Samara, 31 March: A court hearing has began in the case of the chief editor of Novaya Gazeta v Samare (Novaya Gazeta in Samara) Sergey Kurt-Adzhiyev who is being accused of using unlicensed Adobe, Microsoft and 1C software to publish the newspaper, the journalist's lawyer, Irina Khrunova, told RIA Novosti.

"During preliminary hearings the lawyers made two requests - to return the case to the prosecutor because the charges had been drawn up with the violation of the law and to exclude several procedural documents from the evidence. The judge turned down the first request and regarded the second request as premature," Khrunova said.

According to her, the substantive part of the court hearing will start on 15 April.

Kurt-Adzhiyev does not admit guilt for using counterfeit software and links the criminal persecution with his professional activities, his lawyers say.

Senior aide to the head of the investigations directorate of the Investigations Committee under the Russian Prosecutor's Office for Samara Region, Irina Doroshchenko, said that the directorate did not hinder the work of Novaya Gazeta. "The criminal case under Section 2 of Article 146 of the Russian Criminal Code ("violation of copyright and related rights") was initiated in May 2007 regarding a fact of violation. This could have taken place in any office, there was no bias," she said.

The publishing of Novaya Gazeta was suspended in Samara from 12 November. According to the chief editor of the publication, Sergey Kurt-Adzhiyev, the decision was agreed with the Moscow editorial office. The reasons included the seizure of all computers and shortage of funds.