Prominent journalist Mikhail Kozachkov detained

Today journalist Vadim Boreyko informed about detention of Mikhail Kozachkov,  Vremya newspaper reporter and the author of the  Kozachkov offside telegram channel. 

 Financial Monitoring Agency promptly confirmed the information. “He is suspected of aiding and abetting to  illegal takeovers committed by the organized criminal group of Kospaev. (...) Kospaev exploited Kozachkov for information attacks on the victims of hostile takeovers (...) At the same time, the journalist grossly violated he Law "On the Mass Media", disseminating deliberately false information, disclosing banking secrecy and breaching privacy,” the FMA said. 

We are concerned with breaching procedural norms and lawyer Anna Veretelnykova's words about the search conducted in absence of a lawyer. 

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the text of the press release of the Financial Monitoring Agency violates the innocent until proven guilty principle and Article 77 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan: “A person is considered to be innocent of committing a crime until his guilt is recognized by the court judgment that has entered into legal force.” 

Mikhail Kozachkov is a skillful journalist, a graduate of Kazakh National University named after Al-Farabi with more than twenty years of career experience. 

Adil Soz is ready to provide assistance to Mikhail Kozachkov and is concerned about the growing pressure on investigative journalism in Kazakhstan, that grossly  contradicts the political reforms announced by President Tokayev.