Journalist Ardak Yerubayeva fully acquitted

On September 22, Botagoz Almasbaeva, Judge of the Appellate Instance of the Aqtobe Regional Court,  found Ardak Yerubaeva not guilty - there was no disobedience to police officers on the part of the journalist. That means that there was no administrative offense either. So the appellate board revoked the decision of the court of first instance due to the absence of corpus delicti in the actions of Ardak Yerubayeva.

As it was reported, on August 31, the journalist tried to make a photo of the government motorcade of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov, but  was immediately grabbed by two men in civilian clothes, who did not introduce themselves and did not show their official IDs, and was taken to the police department, where she was kept for three hours.

According to the police, the journalist did not have media distinctive marks and run out of the crowd towards the motorcade of the guarded official. Ardak  said that she was standing in a row of civilians, did not run forward and was detained as soon as she raised her hand with a mobile phone to make a picture of the motorcade.

On September 5, Judge Esdauir Muratkan of the Aktobe Specialized Inter-District Court for Administrative Cases found Ardak Yerubayeva guilty in committing administrative offence. The journalist’s lawyer appealed the court decision.