Karlygash Yezhenova is threatened with "illegal measures"

On the evening of February 25, Exclusive.kz posted on its YouTube channel the second part of the documentary “Shocking Asia. Nuclear Billions”. The movie tells about corruption in the construction of the Department of Radioisotope Diagnostics and Therapy of the Center for Nuclear Medicine and Oncology in Semey. Before the release of the film, the editor-in-chief of Exclusive.kz Karlygash Yezhenova  received threats.

“A week and a half ago, we posted a trailer for the second part of the journalistic investigation, and received  messages and calls to  to delete the trailer and not to post the film. I said that we would post it, and if there are any complaints about the content, we are ready to discuss them and to provide our opponents the opportunity to express their views. We were told that there wouldn't be any discussions, no counterevidences, and illegal measures would be taken against us. I wanted to clarify what that meant exactly and they hinted that there would be at least DDOS attacks,” said Karlygash Yezhenova.

Exclusive.kz can only guess what other illegal measures they are to expect.

“If in the near future we start having problems with our website, or YouTube channel, or if I am accused of being a pedophile, I will explain it by the fact that  quite influential people stand behind those who called me. I warned them that if I feel any pressure, I will immediately, within three minutes, make a Facebook post and publish the phone numbers from which they called me,” Karlygash said.

As for the author of the film, a well-known journalist, a Russian citizen Serik Ualikhanov,   measures were taken against him were quite legal. He was deported from Kazakhstan... in absentia, when he was already outside the country. He was deported for four traffic violations, such as not turning on the turn signal, expired insurance and besdies he was blamed for living outside the place of registration. According to the Semey police, Serik lived ... in the office. Now he will not be able to come home for 5 years and will not meet his 82-year-old mother. Serik Ualikhanov recorded a video message to the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, but there has been no response to this so far .

As it was reported,  after  the first part of the film "Shocking Asia. Why Elbasy did not quarrel with Abai" was posted on internet, the Ar-Bedel Foundation threatened to sue Exclusive.kz for disclosing confidential information. Neither a lawsuit nor even a pre-trial claim followed. But someone sent several complaints to YouTube, after which the platform deleted the video.

Now the authors of the film are working on the third part of their journalistic investigation, which Exclusive.kz intends to publish whatever happens.