Editor-in-chief of Kvartal newspaper Yelena Kuznetsova conditionally sentenced to a year in prison

Elena Kuznetsova, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Kvartal was sentenced to one year of  conditional imprisonment and fined for 35 thousand tenge  for publishing articles “Confession of a Russian Investor” (November 8, 2018), “Denouncement of a Russian Investor” (November 15, 2018) and “Gray schemes of the Russian investor” (November 22, 2018).The judge of Petropavlovsk city court Saule Litfullina found the journalist guilty of committing an offense under Art. 130, part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan - slander  connected with accusation of person in commission of corruption, grievous or especially grave crime. Russian businessman Herman Mazur and his partner Olesya Datsko filed  private prosecutions. They stated that the said articles contain statements of committing frauds and other criminal acts that were not yet confirmed by the verdict. Elena Kuznetsova pleaded not guilty.The articles tell about the property conflict between two economic entities. In her first article, Confessions of a Russian Investor, Kuznetsova outlined the essence of the conflict from the point of view of the entrepreneur Herman Mazur, and then presented the point of view of his opponents, the management of Abi Zher LLP. The sentence has not  entered its legal force yet.