Lukpan Akhmedyarov was interrogated

Tonight, on February 1, the editor-in-chief of Uralskaya Nedelya Lukpan Akhmedyarov came on a summons to the Abay police station of  Uralsk police department. Investigator Diana Aminova said that the prosecutor's office of the West Kazakhstan  ordered police to register a criminal case under article 423 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Divulgence of data of pre-trial or closed court proceedings." The grounds of the proceedings was his article "Land scandal in Uralsk - prosecutor's mother became the owner of five land plots", published on November 27 , 2020. The journalist was named  as a witness with the right to defense.

Complying the order of the prosecutor's office, she interrogated the chief of the "Uralskaya Nedelya". Here is what Lukpan told:

“The investigator asked me three questions. 

1. "Are youI the author of that article?" My answer was "Yes".

2. "Was there a source of information for the article?"

My answer: "According to the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, I have the right to freely collect and disseminate information. In accordance with the Law on Mass Media, I, as a journalist, have the right to keep the source of information confidential. Based on the above, I refuse to name the source of information.

3. "Are you aware that you should not divulge the data of the pre-trial investigation?"

My answer: "Article 423 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan refers to the criminal liability of a person properly and legally warned about the inadmissibility of divulgence of a pre-trial investigation without a permission of a prosecutor. Since there was no criminal case while I was working on the article, and, therefore, no prosecutor could warn me about  inadmissibility of divulgence of a pre-trial investigation, I state that I am not a subject of a crime under Article 423 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan".

After that, the investigator had me sign a written undertaking not to divulge of a pre-trial  investigation  of a criminal case, in which I am named as a witness with the right to defense. " 

Advice for beginners: follow the example of  Akhmedyarov, a  grand master of  journalism, and learn to practice the law.