Lukpan Akhmedyarov was detained on a highway on his way to Atyrau

Early in the morning on February 3, Lukpan Akhmedyarov, the editor-in-chief of Uralskaya Nedelya newspaper, with  his deputy Raul Uporov and a  cameraman went to Atyrau to cover release of  Max Bokayev who is to be freed from jail today. Police officers came up to him, detained him and took to the Abai police station.

According to Raul Uporov,  the police organized a traffic jam on the highway under the pretext of severe weather conditions in order to detain the journalist. Right after Akhmedyarov's detention, the highway was opened.

“We stood in a traffic jam near Kushum until the police got to us from the city and  served the summons to Lukpan. Hundreds of cars stood there and waited for the permission to enter the highway. That was a violation of all constitutional rights  not only of Lukpan Akhmedyarov, whose  summons was postponed to February 5. That was a violation of  constitutional rights of all those people whom police   illegally held in line on the highway, without any permission to do so, "Raul Uporov said by phone.

Lukpan said: “They took me away. I could have stood there, of course, but they kept hundred cars at the Kushum post, just to cook up this detention. A police minibus arrived and a policeman came to me saying : "Here, there is a ruling on your reconduction." The ruling was signed by the same investigator who  issued a summons to me for February 5 just one day before! And now he says, they say I didn’t come, so I should be reconducted. He met me yesterday and today he says that I am to be reconducted. I am now being taken to the Abay police department, I will be interrogated as a witness with the right to defense in the same case. "

Currently, Lukpan is in the Abay police department of the city of Uralsk.