Case of Interfering with legal professional activity of journalist in Petropavlovsk: the third round
In Petropavlovsk, the pre-trial investigation of a criminal case on Interfering with legal professional activity of journalists of Khabar-24 TV channel has been resumed.
As it was reported Samat Dzhakupov and Natalya Volkova, the journalists from the North Kazakhstan branch of the editorial office of the Khabar24 TV channel, and cameraman Tolegen Imanov lodge a statement with the police. On August 2, 2021, security officers of the Dostyk Mall shopping center pushed them out of the building. The TV team was covering functioning the ASHIQ program (that identifies COVID-19 status) in the Dostyk Mall.
The criminal investigation that had been initiated in August 2021 was dropped twice. The first time it was dropped on November 1, 2021 due to the lack of corpus delicti under Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstanin the actions of security officers “since they were performing their professional duties.”
The investigation was resumed on November 2 "upon newly discovered evidence " after police watched the video of the incident that journalists provided together with the statement and that was then lost by the police.
At the end of December last year, journalists received a notice signed by the deputy head of the Police Department of Petropavlovsk, Police Major A. Akhmedyarov that the investigation was dropped on the basis of Art. 35 h. 1 c. 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Kazakhstan due to the lack of corpus delicti.
The prosecutor's office of Petropavlovsk agreed with the investigator's decision. However, it turned out that the prosecutors were unable to study the main piece of evidence, the video file, because they could not play it on computer. They informed the reporters about this in early March.
After a public appeal by the employees of the editorial office of the Khabar TV channel, the Petropavlovsk prosecutor's office announced that the decision to drop the pre-trial investigation was canceled and the case was sent to the Petropavlovsk City Police Department for additional investigation.
