Businessman Georg Speiser demands 1 million tenge from journalist Alexander Baranov for April Fool’s joke

A defamation action was filed to Pavlodar city court by  businessman Georg Speiser. The subject-matter of the action was a Facebook post made by journalist Alexander Baranov on  April 1. Despite the fact that the post was marked as April Fool's joke and said that the story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in it were fictitious and no identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred, the businessman considered it to be  dissemination of false information. The plaintiff demanded that the journalist refute the post and pay compensation for non-pecuniary damage in the amount of 1 million tenge.