News

Press conference “What is Bigeldy Gabdullin accused of?” was held at Kazakhstan Press Club on November 23, 2016.

PEN International today expressed its serious concern over the arrest on 15 November 2016 of journalist Bigeldy Gabdullin, the President of the Kazakh PEN Club in connection with alleged extortion. The organization fears he may have been targeted for his reporting critical of government officials. It is calling for him to be released unless clear evidence of a criminal offence is made available and he is charged and tried promptly and fairly in accordance with international fair trial standards.

The prominent public figure Murat Auezov, president of International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech “Adil Soz” Tamara Kaleyeva and journalist Kenzhe Tatilya on behalf of editorial staff of the newspaper “Central Asia Monitor” wrote open letter. It was connected with arrest of publisher of newspaper “Central Asia Monitor” and Internet-portal Radiotochka.kz Bigeldy Gabdullin.

The editorial staff of newspaper “Ak Zhaiyik” informed that during month its website operated erratically. From time to time, this Internet-resource had DDos-attacks. First of all, there were DDos-attacks from foreign countries that’s why there was necessity to block access for foreign visitors. But, during last days there were DDos-attacks from territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The administration of website should close and debug services of website.

On November 15, 2016 Internet-resource Tengrinews.kz with the reference to National Bureau of Anti-Corruption informed that Bigeldy Gabdullin was suspected of extortion.

From July 05, 2016 inhabitant of PavlodarRuslan Ginatullin was taken into custody. He was charged with incitement of national enmity under article 174 p.1 of Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.