Court hearings in Zeinulla Kakimzhanov’s lawsuit to Ratel.kz will be conducted behind closed doors

On 1 February in Medeu district court in Almaty pre-trial hearings were conducted in ex-finance and state revenue minister Zeinulla Kakimzhanov and Ilkhalid Kakaimzhanov’s lawsuit to Ratel.kz и Forbes.kz

The plaintiff’s motion on conducting hearings and pronouncing decision behind closed doors was considered the first. The plaintiff’s lawyer explained that information about Kakimzhanovs’ kinship relationships invades their privacy and information about names of top-management of some companies discloses commercial confidentiality .

In their turn respondents’ lawyers pointed out that all information contained in questioned articles was obtained from open access sources including official websites of state bodies and thus cannot invade privacy or disclose commercial secrets.

The judge left to the consultation room and after his return to the court room announced that the plaintiff’s motion was satisfied and court hearings would continue behind closed doors.

On December 29, 2016 editors office of  Internet portal Ratel.kz received pre-trial claim from the ex-minister of finance and state revenue Zeinulla Kakimzhanov. He demanded retraction of 9 articles  published on the site from May to December 2016 and deleting them from the site.

In early January  Z.Kakimzhanov  filed the lawsuit to Medeu District Court of Almaty not even waiting for the end of 30-day time limit for responding to the pre-trial claim. In addition to retraction and removal of articles the plaintiffs Zeinulla Kakimzhanov and Ilhalid Kakimzhanov, demanded redress for the non-pecuniary damage: from the chief editor of the portal Marat Asipov and journalist Sapa Mekebaeva - 2 million tenge,  from journalist Gennady Benditskiy - 6 million tenge, from the former general director of LLP "Avtodorservis" Vitaly Protsentov - 5 million tenge, from the publisher  LLP "ITAYU" - 6 million tenge.

On January, 11 Judge T.Zhumamuratov issued a ruling to secure the claim. He prohibited the defendants “to cover the trial in media by drawing attention of  media and making comments in social networks.

Preliminary hearing on the suit of ex-Minister of Finance and the State Revenue Zeinulla Kakimzhanov to the Internet portal Ratel.kz began in Almaty on January 16. The plaintiffs - Zeinulla Kakimzhanov  and Ilhalid Kakimzhanov - made additions to their lawsuit. They demanded to name the publisher of website Forbes.kz LLP United Media Group and its deputy chief editor Alexander Vorotilov as defendants on the same lawsuit.

Moreover the plaintiffs’ representative filed the request  to conduct hearing behind closed doors, because the questioned articles disclose information about the plaintiffs’ kinship relationships and social status thus invading privacy.

In his turn, the representative of the Internet portal Ratel.kz said that since the pre-trial claim was received on December 29 and the response time is 30 days. Thus the possibility of pre-trial settlement of the dispute has not been lost, and the claim should be denied.

Nevertheless the judge scheduled the next hearing on January 24, i.e. before the expiry of the pre-trial settlement time but later it was postponed to 1 February.