Lukpan Ahmedyarov is accused of insulting a representative of authority

Lukpan Ahmedyarov, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Uralskaya Nedelya, was accused of insulting a representative of the authority (part 1, article 378 of the Criminal Code). The “representative of authority", who reported on the inslut fron the journalist, was the district police officer A.Turmanov.

According to Lukpan, on Saturday, July 22 when he was far from the city, someone, who said to be  policeman Turmanov, called him and asked  to appear in the police station for drawing up a  record of an administrative offense committed by the journalist earlier. The journalist explained for  several times that he was out of town and could not come immediately. The caller continued to insist,  Lukpan’s patience had run out, he told the caller to bugger off and  hung up.

Commentary of Adil Soz:

Insulting a representative of authority suposses the use of obscenities while giving evaluation of the person (i.e. of the representative of authority).  Evaluation is a form of expressing an opinion about a person. The Commentary on the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (edited by I. Borchashvili) to article 320 (now article 378 - "Insulting a representative of authority"), says that: "The insult must contain a negative opinion of the victim, which is expressed in an indecent manner".

In Lukpan Ahmadyarov's conversation with a man who introduced himself as a police officer, Turmanov, there was no such  opinion. The controversial expression is synonymous to the expression - "leave me alone". If everyone who uses rude-old-fashioned expressions in a conversation whith representatives of authority, then half of the population of the tcountry should be convicted of criminal offences.  

Lukpan Ahmedyarov is the only Kazakh journalist whose attempted assassination was solved by police in 2012. The cause of the attempted assassination was journalist's critical publications. Lukpan is a prize-winner of the prestigious American Peter Makler award that is annually awarded to journalists covering acute topics in countries "where freedom of speech is not guaranteed".