Mikhail Kozachkov addressed the President of Kazakhstan
On January 5, 2023 Mikhail Kozachkov, a correspondent for the Kazakhstani newspaper Vremya, an Almaty-based investigative journalist, sent a letter to President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Here is the full text of this letter:
«Your Excellency,
Over the past year, I have helped the ordinary citizens of Kazakhstan to publish dozens, maybe hundreds of appeals addressed to you. Now it's my turn to ask for your help.
On December 18, 2022 I was detained by representatives of Financial Monitoring Agency (AFM) and since that day I have been behind bars. I am accused of complicity in raiding and participation in organized criminal group, as well as of collecting and distributing state secrets.
My alleged ‘criminal activity’ is the writing of several articles on various topics. For example, I was reporting about a criminal case against businessman Almas Abdygapparov. On summer of 2021, he was accused in embezzlement of $1.0 million. I was the first journalist who wrote about the case. Later, I published an extract from the register of debtors, which indicated that Abdygapparov did not repay KZT 2 billion of his loans to the banks.
Today, according to the qualification of my alleged act, my articles led to the fact that Abdygapparov's share in AV-Construction LLP was transferred to the third parties. They say that I, allegedly, contributed to this by presenting Abdygapparov in media as ‘fraudster’. The investigators indicated that I wrote and published these articles following the direct instructions from Eldos Kospayev, leader of the organized criminal group.
But this is a blatant lie. I never met Kospayev, never talked to him, and never received any ‘instructions’ from him.
On top of that, according to the investigators’ version of my ‘crime’, my tasks included the deletion of comments if they did not support the version of embezzlement!
Do you understand what is going on, Mr. President?
My role in the organized crime group allegedly was to write articles and to delete comments, and I became ‘a gang member’, whose actions led to the loss of the Abdygapparov’s share in above mentioned LLP.
Perhaps I am the first journalist in the world whose publications to have such an impact on ordinary people.
I had no idea that after Abdygapparov was arrested, his mother re-registered the share of the company and transferred it to third parties, because she was promised that if she does so, they will change the measure of restraint for her son.
I did not know anything about these negotiations and honestly, as a journalist, I wasn’t interested to know the details about ‘who owns what’.
I was reporting on this story when the trial on the Abdygapparov’s case started, and because he is a well-known person, readers were interested in following this process.
5-7 journalists, me included, were reporting on this but I described mostly the highlights. Now they accuse me of ridiculing attorneys who misspelled the last name of the principal. Is this also the raiding?
I published posts on social media about the undercovered investigative actions that were examined in court, when Abdygapparov directly confirms that he embezzled a million dollars.
Businessman was found guilty of embezzlement, and the judgment entered into force.
AFM states otherwise, saying that the case was fabricated but if that what it is, then why police officers, prosecutors and judges were not held accountable for it. I am the only one accused and detained, as if I, as a journalist, have the power to ‘fabricate’ a criminal case by writing the articles.
My work, according to investigators, was compensated by organized criminal group that gave me the 2022 Toyota Camry that costs KZT 19 million. This is another lie. In fact, I received this car in exchange for 2020 Camry, and I made additional payment for it.
This car now serves as a ‘link’ between me and Mr. Burkhan Zhanseitov, an attorney.
He provided the legal services to AV-Construction LLP and received salary for this. We exchanged our cars, and I re-registered my car to his sister Elmira.
The ‘link’ between Mr. Zhanseitov and I is our friendship over the past two years, and this is what connecting us. Today, him and me, we both are accused of raiding. I wrote articles, he provided the legal advising to the company, and therefore, we performed our professional duties, but someone says that we became members of organized crime group. It is important to emphasize that neither him nor I participated in negotiations or re-registration of shares in any company.
Some people also complain that I wrote articles about businessman Azim Abdullayev, a long-term partner of Bolat Nazarbayev, the former President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev's brother. Indeed, I was reporting about the Abdullayev’s plant “Shalkar-17”, where the authorities detected the violations of standards regarding manufacture of alcoholic beverages, but despite this finding, the enterprise continued to manufacture the dubious quality drinks.
One of the Almaty residents, Mr. Ariyanov contacted me to tell a story about his younger brother Artem who died under suspicious circumstances at the wedding of the Abdullayev’s son. This criminal case was not investigated for about 5 years.
Do you consider it ‘RAIDING’ too – i.e.to write about the tragic death of young man? No one tried to find out the reasons for his death and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Finally, I am also accused of disclosing state secrets; I allegedly collected and disseminated information about the AFM’s secret service employees.
In fact, I twice published the information that was provided by Zhanseitov, after he noticed that he and other attorneys were followed. One of my subscribers, after my first publication, sent me the personal data of these people, and I simply re-sent it to Zhanseitov. When the second episode of surveillance happened, I published the photo of man who was following the attorneys. His picture was found online, in social media. Here we go, we give you a ‘secret agent’.
AFM employees during an informal conversation claimed that this data was sent to me by their colleague; they even gave me the name of woman, but she is unfamiliar to me. Perhaps – I understand it now – it was some kind of provocation from AFM, that wanted to provide me some data that I could disseminate it as a journalist.
Dear Mr. President!
I am aware of comments that Press Office of the President made in regard of my situation. They reassured me that my rights, as a journalist, will be protected, as the rights of any other citizen of Kazakhstan. My attorneys and I, both understand that my so-called ‘criminal activity’ is just the publication of articles and videos.
The investigators are curious to know who are my sources and from where I’ve got information – for example, about the family of Prosecutor General Berik Asylov, whose relatives quickly got promoted after his appointment as Prosecutor, and one of his relatives didn’t complete his sentence and received much earlier release.
Therefore, I understand that the criminal case against me affects the interests of different people, including high-ranking officials.
I ask you to take the investigation under your control.
Signature
January 5, 2023
The original of this letter was mailed from the pre-trial detention center to the Office of Presidential Administration
