Police vs journalist Shara Turmagambetova

Yesterday Adil Soz informed that on February 27 Shara Turmagambetova, the chief editor of the Alginsk regional newspaper Zhuldyz-Zvezda, was attacked by unknown men (see http://www.adilsoz.kz/news/show/id/2864) .

We received this message from our trustworthy source, called Shara and found out the details of the attack. However, in the morning of March 1, a representative of the Aktobe Region Police Department, Yerbolat Sarkulov, called the office of the foundation and told another version of the incident, that disavows Shara Turmagambetova’s information and discredits her personally. Then we got a press release from the police department. We quote it as it stands: “Some media outlents published  information about the alleged attack at Aktobe journalist Shara Turmagambetova. Alga Police Department checked the information and on the basis of eyewitnesses evidences found out  that on February 27 S.Turmagambetova fell at the entrance of her house and suffered a face injury of through her carelessness. She did not report it to the police. In this connection, we ask you to refrain from posting unverified comments. Press Service of the Aktobe Region Police Department ".

Shara Turmagambetova is wellknown as a talented editor and active citizen. She was working on an article about a tender of an oil company and wrote on Facebook about the privatization of a district newspaper, she often criticizes the work of local authorities. These are the facts that anyone can verify. It is unknown what facts Alga Police Department checked, what eyewitnesses were at the time of the incident at the entrance of the house,  how the police found them and took their testimony. Finally, the reason is unknown for such urgent actions  if nobody applied to the police?

Adil Soz has been chronicling attacks on journalists for 20 years. It is great, diverse and always reliable. We  contacted Shara again and she confirmed her words. She did not go to the police, because she supposed that police would detain some youngsters and make them confess to the attack and she did not want it on her conscience.