The court of appeal in Shymkent found Marina Nizovkina guilty of defamation of a policeman

On February 12, the judicial board for criminal cases of the Shymkent city Court overturned the decision of the Specialized Inter-district Court for Administrative Offenses to terminate the libel case against Marina Nizovkina, a journalist at Atameken Business, and found the journalist guilty under Part 2 of Article 73-3 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The court imposed an administrative penalty on Nizovkina in the form of a fine in the amount of 180 MCI (621,000 tenge).
Recall that the proceedings were initiated based on a complaint filed by the first deputy chief of the Shymkent Police Department, Yermakhan Abdramanov, regarding two posts published on Marina Nizovkina's instagram. Both posts allegedly spread false information linking Abdramanov's dismissal of a technician with complaints to the regional akim during his visit to the gymnasium.
Throughout both the initial trial and the appeal, the defendant's side did not receive clarification on which information in the posts was deemed blatantly false. Moreover, the hearings repeatedly questioned why two of Marina Nizovkina's posts were considered when the administrative offense report was issued only for one of them.
Three expert examinations were conducted in the case. According to the journalist's lawyer, Natalya Burmistrova, the expert opinion from the Center for Judicial Expertise in Aktobe concluded that it was impossible to identify negative information regarding Abdramanov.
The appellate panel concluded that the court of first instance failed to sufficiently clarify the factual circumstances of the case, did not consider the conclusions of the expert examinations from Shymkent and Astana, and did not initiate another examination despite having two conflicting reports. Additionally, the screenshots provided by Nizovkina for expert evaluation were not legalized.
The decision may be reviewed in the appellate court.
«I believe that in this case, in this process, shame should be felt by those who won such a case, not by those who lost. I was absolutely sure that there were no signs or elements of the offense defined by Article 73-3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Even in her explanation, if you all noticed, the judge simply veered away from the topic – what defamatory information was contained in the publication dated September 11. It turns out that a journalist, before releasing anything, for example, if an event occurred, someone was detained on suspicion of corruption, according to the court, cannot publish this until the verdict establishing the guilt of that person comes into force. And yet, all three expert examinations confirmed that the publication was just normal information dissemination. To inform the public, citizens, subscribers. Thus, I believe that we should stop informing altogether, and then none of you will ever commit any administrative offense. Criticism is not lies; criticism is simply an objective expression, one's opinion, one's vision of the situation currently unfolding», summarized Marina Nizovkina's lawyer Natalya Burmistrova.