Court refused to change imprisonment into restraint for Seitkazy Matayev

KazTAG reports:

According to the law, Seitkazy Matayev, president of the national press-club, and Aset Matayev, director general of KazTAG news agency, may be released from colony, however, courts are doing their best to prevent this to happen, said the lawyers.
"The Kapshagai court refused S. Matayev to change deprivation of liberty into restraint of freedom. The Almaty regional court upheld this decision. The Kapshagai court, and then the Almaty regional court refused to apply amnesty, despite the fact that the Ministry of Information and Communications did not object. We can see willful interpretation of the norms of the law, "said Madina Bakiyeva, lawyer.
She outlined that according to the law there are enough grounds for change of the penalty.
"The criminal law allows to release S. Matayev on parole. The necessary term has been served for this. The state of his health continues to cause concern - he is staying in the sanitary zone, i.e. staying in hospital. He has positive characteristics from the colony. But, despite all this, the courts emphasize the compensation of the alleged damage and openly say that in order to be released, he must fully compensate a huge amount - 500 million tenge, although the criminal law provides other grounds for change of punishment," she said.
Lawyer Andrey Petrov noted that the courts, demanding compensation for the damage deprive him of the opportunity to do so.
"It turns out to be a vicious circle: the courts demand compensation for damages,  while all the property that Seitkazy and Aset Matayev had, and which was acquired 10 or more years prior to the incriminated period, was arrested. Now everything is in the hands of judicial executors. S. Matayev has a spouse, A. Matayev also has a spouse. According to the law, they have the right for the half of jointly acquired property. Nevertheless, the justice officers do not allocate these shares; the property is worth a dead weight. We are trying to explain to the court that there are other grounds for changing the punishment, and even the administration of the correctional institution petitioned for this, but the court does not take these facts into account," he said.
According to A. Petrov, the courts are under the pressure from outside.
"The pressure from the outside was colossal on the judiciary, on the law enforcement agencies, on us, lawyers, and on our clients. Judges are under pressure as well- those who get our lawsuits, complaints. This is reflected in the fact that  they deny our requests, they deny the requests of  Matayev, deny the requests of the wife of S. Matayev, the wife of A. Matayev, they deny the requests of LLP "National Press Club". We feel that someone is still putting pressure on the judges," he said.
M. Bakiyeva has the same opinion.
"Some judges openly tell us that they can not make a lawful decision. Nobody wants to do anything according to the law. It was not enough for them to deprive the Matayev of freedom and property. Someone wants them to be in prisons, " she said.
, M. Bakiyeva said that even in the places of detention S. Matayev keeps on experiencing pressure, in addition he was asked for assistance in interacting with mass media.