General Prosecutor's Office considers Biggeldy Gabdullin's sentence too mild

President of the Kazakh International PEN Club, editor-in-chief of the republican social and political newspaper Central Asia Monitor and founder of the Internet portal Radiotochka Biggeldy Gabdullin was sentenced to five years of restriction of freedom with deprivation of the right to hold senoir positions in January 2017. Now he will appear before the court againg under the protest of the prosecutor.  

Acording to the newspaper Central Asia Monitor, on August 11, 2017, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Kazakhstan filed a protest to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan under cassation procedure. In his protest he qualified the verdict of the specialized inter-district criminal court of Astana from January 24 against Gabdullin as too mild and requested to vary it. The procesutor requested to sentence Gabdullin to  7 (seven) years of imprisonment with confiscation of property and deprivation of the right to hold senior positions at civil service and in commercial organizations, as well as to engage in journalism and the publishing for up to 10 (ten) years. The punishement should be served in correctional faclity  of  maximum security. Appliction for Gabdullin’s deprivation of  of state awards Kurmet and Parasat should be submitted to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, accoring to the Prosecutor General.

There is no information in the protest about new charges or about newly discovered circumstances in this case.

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 law enforcement agencies Bigeldy Gabdullin used the state medianewspaper “Central Asia Monitor” andInternet-portal “Radiotochka.kz” for the information attack on heads of state agencies and publishing negative information which discredited their business reputation. Thus he extorted state orders for his media from criticized officials and then he published positive materials.

On 15 November, 2016 he was detained and then arrested. He pleaded guilty during the investigation and at court and repaired the damage ordered by the court. After he was freed from detention Gabdullin worked as the counselor of the new editor-in-chief of the Central Asia Monitor.

Cassation protest of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Kazakhstan  for varying B.Gbdullin’s sentence will be heard on 29 August 2017 at 9 AM at the Supreme Court