Eurovision-2013 results will hardly be revoked, lawyers say

Lawyers questioned by RAPSI believe that it would hardly be possible to review the results of the song contest Eurovision-2013, which was held since May 14 to 18 in the city of Malmo, Sweden, where the Russian competitor Dina Garipova took the fifth place.

Authorities of Azerbaijan published on Tuesday the data of the largest mobile phone operators, according to which Russia is the second voted-for by Azerbaijan people at the Eurovision. However, during the final vote count, Russia received no points from Azerbaijan while awarding the highest 12 points to the Azeri competitor.

The subject of the “lost” votes was brought up even during the meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Azerbaijan. Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia would not leave the theft of the votes without a response, and his Azeri counterpart Elmar Mamedyarov called the incident “a detective story”.

There will be no revocation

The lawyers pointed out that the voting results should first be applied against to the European Broadcasting Union, and, depending on its reaction, the case could be taken to courts. However, they believe that both ways are losing.

In particular, Advocate Sergey Gorbachev of Legis Group is convinced that the annulment of the Eurovision-2013 results is improbable.

The advocate explained: “The result of the appeal will largely depend on the existence of real proof evidencing some influence, which could affect the results of the competition. Still, taking into account the certain political significance of the event, I don’t think its organizers would revoke the results”.

Denis Shumskiy, his colleague from the Law Firm "YUST", also foretells that the event will not be reviewed, and the 10 points will not be returned. He believes: “Also, the extra 10 points for our competitor would hardly influence the final results of the competition anyway”.

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