“She came to the police herself”: Olesya Vertinskaya’s family alleges journalist was unlawfully detained

Family members of Atyrau journalist and civic activist Olesya Vertinskaya have provided the Adil Soz Foundation with video footage that contradicts the police account of her “compulsory appearance.”

The family also questions the grounds for the criminal prosecution of Vertinskaya. As previously reported, a court placed her under house arrest for two months.

Earlier, a video circulated on social media showing police officers forcibly taking Vertinskaya away from the city prosecutor’s office. At the time, she was holding a crying child.

The Atyrau Region Police Department said that Vertinskaya had repeatedly failed to appear for questioning, prompting the investigator to issue an order for her compulsory appearance. Police also alleged that she failed to comply with lawful orders and resisted the officers.

According to her family, however, Olesya came to the police station herself in response to a summons and was not evading the investigation. She informed officers that she was on medical leave to care for her child and asked them to wait for her lawyer. Instead, the family says, she was forcibly taken to the police department building.

According to her relatives, following the first detention, the duty prosecutor ordered Vertinskaya’s release because procedural violations had occurred while she was being brought in. However, later that same day, the journalist was detained again outside the city prosecutor’s office. Footage of this second detention subsequently drew widespread attention on social media.

The family alleges that during the second detention, the police officers did not properly explain their lawful demands to Vertinskaya and that her child was injured. According to the family, the journalist spent approximately 12 hours in police custody in total.

Vertinskaya has also described the criminal case against her as unfounded. According to information previously released by law enforcement authorities, the journalist is accused of intentional infliction of moderate bodily harm under Paragraphs 2 and 5 of Part 2 of Article 107 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

According to Olesya, the case arose from a traffic accident and was initially handled as an administrative matter before later being reclassified as a criminal case. The journalist claims that the man who filed the complaint against her was standing near the vehicle and provoking a confrontation. In the video provided by the family, the man can indeed be heard being asked to move away from the car, but he continues to remain nearby.

Vertinskaya also says that the initial forensic medical examination found no serious injuries to the man, while a subsequent examination concluded that he had sustained moderate bodily harm.

The Adil Soz Foundation believes that the circumstances surrounding the journalist’s detention and criminal prosecution require thorough examination.

Adil Soz also stresses the need to assess whether the use of force during Vertinskaya’s detention was proportionate, particularly given the presence of a young child, and to provide a legal assessment of all the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Olesya Vertinskaya is a civic activist and journalist with the Atyrau-based outlet Dorozhny Patrul (“Road Patrol”). She is a mother of four.

During the tragic events of January 2022, Olesya covered the mass protests. She was subsequently subjected to torture at a sports complex, where she says she was held for approximately six hours. On 19 January 2022, the journalist filed a torture complaint with the Atyrau Region Police Department and Prosecutor’s Office. The criminal case opened following her complaint was later closed due to “insufficient evidence.”