Owner of “Bekzhan” market accuses journalist Bakhrom Abdullaev of defamation

On 25 October court hearings on the charge of defamation of Bakhrom Abdullaev, “Otyrar” TV channel reporter and Azia Paizakhmetov, the city inhabitant,  began at Abay district court of Shymkent. Private charge was filed by the owner of “Bekzhan” market Amirkhan Shumenov.

 The reason for the private charge was the story reported by B. Abdullaev in the evening TV news programme on July 14. The story said that the ancient Shymkent cemetery "Sypyrgan ata" was drowning in garbage. Aziz Paizakhmetov told the reporter about this problem.

Local residents and the cemetery keeper A. Yuldashev told that the waste was left not only by visitors, but also by the sellers working at the nearby market "Bekzhan". According to them, the market’s management  decided to pave a new path to the market through "Sypyrgan ata" in order to increase the flow of buyers and ordered not to close the cemetery gates. After talking to the local residents Bahrom Abdullayev applied to the management of "Bekzhan" market, but they did not comment. Later, the journalist got explanations from Abay district akimat (local authorities).

After some time the father of Aziz Paizakhmetov applied to the channel, and another story was shown on July 19.  That story reflected “Bekzhan” market management’s point of view and showed cemetery keeper A. Yuldashev saying that previously he was not accurate in his words and that he had no complaints to the management of the market.

After that, the owner of the market filed the lawsuit.