Turkestan, 23 October. A court in Turkestan region placed journalist Amangeldy Batyrbekov under arrest for two months; on 2 October the same court had already sanctioned 20 days of administrative detention for him, Vlast.kz reported.
Batyrbekov linked his detention to a video he published about Kural Seitkhanuly. On 8 September Turkestan city court sentenced Seitkhanuly, an activist and representative of the S-INFORM newspaper, to three years in prison; according to the Adil Soz freedom of speech foundation, he was detained in May after a complaint by blogger Lyazzat Assanova, who accused him of disseminating her personal data. Batyrbekov says the information the activist published was not confidential and had previously been posted on social media.
The report does not specify under which article the measure of restraint was chosen or what the journalist is suspected of.
What it means: A journalist who defended a convicted activist has himself been detained — for the second time in a month. The official charge has not been disclosed.
Who benefits: The sources do not name beneficiaries. The court's decision can be appealed; the sources do not give the investigators' position.
Background: The Adil Soz foundation monitors cases of journalists and activists in Kazakhstan and reported the sentence against Kural Seitkhanuly.
List of sources used: Vlast.kz, Adil Soz
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
