Bigeldy Gabdullin is sentenced to 5 years of restriction of liberty and discharged from custody

January 24 the sentence was pronounced -for the chief editor of the newspaper Central Asia Monitor and director of site Radiotochka.kz Bigeldy Gabdullin. The court found B.Gabdullin guilty of extortion (art.194 part 4 paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code), sentenced him to 5 years of restriction of liberty, and put him under probation supervision for 5 years. Besides B.Gabdullin not allowed to hold positions in local government, management positions related to organizational, distribution and logistics responsible functions in the public service and commercial organizations up to 10 years.

The attachment of B.Gabdullin’s movable and immovable property is lifted. B.Gabdullin discharged from custody in the courtroom.

Editor-in-chief of newspaper “Central Asia Monitor” and director of the internet-portal “Radiotochka.kz” Bigelgy Gabdullin was accused of extortion (art. 194 p.4, s.2 of the Criminal Code). According to the National anticorruption bureau, B.Gabdullin used his media CentralAsiaMonitor and Radiotochka.kz to extort signing public contracts from government bodies.

According to information of National Bureau of Anti-Corruption Bigeldy Gabdullin pulished critical material about government bodies and stopped such publications in exchange for public contracts.

 On 15 November 2016 B.Gabdullin was detained and then arrested. 

Pre-trial hearings on B. B.Gabdullin’s case were held on 11 January. Main hearings began on 17 January.