STATISTIC of violations of rights for freedom of expression in Kazakhstan. January- June, 2017

 CONVICTED, ARRESTED AND IMPRISONED JOURNALISTS —11

Amangeldy Batyrbekov, chairman of the public association "Adilet", Shymkent, South-Kazakhstan region

A.Batyrbekov was sentenced to two years of restriction of liberty under Art. 411 - Defamation against a judge, juror, prosecutor, pre-trial investigator, expert, bailiff, judicial custodian.

He was released from custody in the courtroom on January 19. A.Batyrbekov was under house arrest since 08 June 2016.

Biggeldy Gabdullin, chief editor of CentralAsiaMonitor and director of Radiotochka website, Almaty

On January 24 ht was sentenced to five years of restriction of freedom on charges of extortion and released from arrest in the courtroom

B.Gabdullin was detained on November 15, 2016, and arrested with the sanction of the court on November 16, 2016.

Zhanbolat Mamay, "Tribuna. Sayasi Kalam”, Almaty

On February 10, the chief editor of the newspaper "Tribuna. Sayasi Kalam" Zhanbolat Mamay was detained, and on February 11 was arrested for two months with the sanction of the court within the frameworks of the investigation of embezzlement of BTA Bank by Mukhtar Ablyazov. On February 20 the Almaty City Court dismissed the appeal of Zh. Mamay and refused to change the pre-trial restriction from arrest to bail.

On March 31 the court extended the arrest of J. Mamay till May 10, 2017.

On April 27 the court extended the arrest of J. Mamay till June 10, 2017.

On May 31 the court extended the arrest of M. Mamay till July 10, 2017.

Teymur Akhmedov, Astana

On January, 18 Teymur Akhmedov was detained by the Committee of National Security officers on suspicion of inciting religious hatred by a group of persons. Later, the court sanctioned the arrest of Akhmedov for two months.

On May 2, 2017 he was found guilty in inciting religious hatred (Article 174 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan) and sentenced to five years in prison.

On June 20  the Appeals Board upheld the verdict.

Asaf Guliyev,  Astana

On January, 18 Teymur Akhmedov was detained by the Committee of National Security officers on suspicion of inciting religious hatred by a group of persons. Later, the court sanctioned the arrest of Guliyev for two months.

On February 24, the court sentenced Asaf Guliyev to five years of restriction of freedom taking into consideraton his confession of guilt and repentance.

Yerlan Kaliev, Askhat Bersalimov, Galym Agelev, Almaty

On February 23, human rights activist Yerlan Kaliyev was detained at the exit from the office of the Kazakhstan international bureau of human rights and rule of law and taken to Alatau district police department for his intention to hold a single picket in defense of Zhanbolat Mamaym in front of  the Almaty department of the Committee of National Security.

Blogger Askhat Bersalimov and human rights activist Galym Ageleuov were detained at the site of the planned picket. According to G.Ageleuov, he arrived to the place of the picket to inform the others about the detention of Y.Kaliyev.

On February 23, the Almaty Specialized Interdistrict Administrative Court found civil activist Askhat Bersalinov guilty of violating the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the organization and holding of peaceful assemblies, rallies, marches, pickets and demonstrations and ordered him to be administratively arrested for 15 days. On February 28, the appeals instance left the ruling of the administrative court unchanged. The activist was released on March 10.

Kuanysh Bashpayev, Ekibastuz, Pavlodar region

Master student of the Islamic University of Medina of Saudi Arabia Kuanysh Bashpayev was under arrest with the sanction of the court since October 2016. On 7 April 2017 Pavlodar court No. 2 sentenced him to 4.5 years in prison on charges of inciting religious hatred (Article 174 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan).

Max Bokaev, Talgat Ayan, Atyrau city

On November 28, 2016, court No. 2 of Atyrau found civil activists Max Bokayev and Talgat Ayan guilty in spreading deliberately false information during public events (Article 274, part 4, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan), incitement of social, national, tribal , racial, class or religious discord "(Article 174, part 2) and violation of the procedure for organizing and holding meetings, rallies, pickets, street processions and demonstrations" (Article 400). The court sentenced them to five years of imprisonment with serving their sentence in a general-regime colony and ban for public activities for three years.

On January 20, 2017, the Appeal Board of the Atyrau Regional Court upheld the verdict.

On 13.04.2017, the Supreme Court denied to consider the convicts’ cassation appeal.

Threats to journalists – 1

AkmaralShayakhmetova (“UralskayaNedelya”, Uralsk)

Attack on journalists – 3

Mirlan Amanzholov, Aliya Orazai (TC “Kazakhstan-Aktobe”, Aktobe oblast), NUR.KZ (Aktobe);Aray Temirkhanova and Ilya Rybin, (TC “31 Channel”, Astana), Ramazan Yesergepov “Journalists in trouble” (Almaty).

Closure/suspenson of media

Radiotochka.kz (Almaty, closed upon decision of the administrations of the Internet-portal)

“SayasiKalam. Tribuna”, Almaty (closed due to the closure of the newspaper’s owner enterprise)

Unjustified blocking and restriction of access to network editions —  7

Avaaz.org; http://tribunakz.com/ (Almaty); pana-defenders.info; nethouse.ru; channel of activist A. Shaigumarov (Uralsk) in Youtube and channel of blogger Ainur Kurmanov (Almaty) in Youtube; Foreignpolicy.com (USA)

Impending legal journalistic activity - 22

CRIMINALPROSECUTIONSANDCHARGES — 35  charges

CIVIL CLIAMS TO MEDIA AND JOURNALISTS–   49;

including

claims and lawsuits on protection of honor, dignity and business reputation - 48

Claimed amounts of compensation for moral damage - 163 million 60 thousand tenge.

Collected compensation for moral damage  - 51 mln. 720 th. tenge

Appelants of civil claims to media: civil servants - 10 , Legal entities - 15, citizens - 21

Judgments rendered - 33 (Incl. 7 - in the appeal). Of those in favor of the media and the citizens - 20.

Judgements passed–  33 (icluding 7 in appeal bodies). Of them in favor of media and citizens– 20.

PERSECUTION BY ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER  – 3

denials and restrictions in providing socially important information —  86