The second case in 30 years under art. 158 of the Criminal Code came to trial ... on the sixth attempt

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 more than a year ago. On August 2, 2021, security officers of the Dostyk Mall shopping center pushed them out of the building. The TV team was covering the functioning of the ASHIQ program (that identifies COVID-19 status) in the Dostyk Mall.

Criminal investigation under art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Interfering with legal professional activity of journalist) was dropped for man times, but due to publicity, it was resumed again.

It stands to mention that media workers kept to their principle stance. All this time they were under pressure, unknown persons offered to negotiate the incident, asked what Khabar needed to resolve the conflict.

On October 6, 2022 cameraman Tolegen Imanov got a subpoena and a notice saying that police brings him to  administrative responsibility under Part 1 of Article 425 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (Violation of requirements of the legislation in the field of sanitary and epidemiological welfare of population, as well as hygienic standards). It is noteworthy that the document was made on a letterhead for 2020, and the date was corrected manually by a pen to 2022.

The first hearing  of the case of Interfering with legal professional activity of journalist will be held on October 10. The case will be considered by the judge of the Petropavlovsk city court Asem Dzhanalina. It should be noted that this is only the second case in the history of independent Kazakhstan, when the case under Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan came to tiral. "Adil soz" will monitor the trial. We hope that the rights of journalists will be protected, and such cases will go to court without such long ordeals in future.