In anticipation of court decision
Law-enforcement agencies have recently seized the printrun of
opposition papers Svoboda Slova (Speech Freedom) and Zhuma-times. According
to the news agency Kazakhstan Today, law-enforcement officials seized the Svoboda
Slova printrun because the paper ran a story insulting the honor and dignity of one of
the presidential candidates. It's rumored that the printruns could have been seized
because they ran stories about a US trial of James Giffen, a US citizen and former adviser
to Nursultan Nazarbayev. James Giffen is charged with graft. The trial has been dubbed in
the media as the Kazakhgate. However, if the Kazakhgate trial does exist, why the
journalists must pretend it doesn't exist, ask journalists on the Respublica web
site. Meanwhile, member of a public committee for the presidential election control Murat
Auezov believes that the prosecutors' decision to seize the Svoboda Slova printrun
is quite correct. If the newspaper "employs the black PR and simultaneously pretends
that the materials are harmless, this is not very smart," says M. Auezov.
In an article entitled "Why Rashid TUSUPBEKOV frames the
President? General Prosecutor's Office "taboos" information about
Kazakhgate", Mukhametzhan ADILOV writes on the Respublica's web site that
"publication of materials covering the US trial of American citizen J. Giffen"
can potentially be a reason for seizing newspaper copies.
Bulat Abilov and Tolen Tokhtasynov, leaders of the group "For a
Fair Kazakhstan" forwarded an official inquiry to official agencies asking them to
provide an official explanation as to what can be regarded as defamation of a presidential
candidate.
Recenly they received an answer signed by
department head of the General Prosecutor's Office, A.Ê Kravchenko, No. 7/530-05 of
October 8, 2005. In particular, the letter reads (we quote), "… distribution of
information about the action or inaction of a person containing elements of criminal
misbehavior that hasn't been proved by an effective conviction, shall be regarded as
information intended to insult the honor, dignity, and business reputation of a
presidential candidate, which is forbidden by paragraph 7, article 27 of the
Constitutional Law "On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan". The above also
covers the information about the ongoing trial of J. Giffen in the US."
In connection with which, journalists of the Respublica
newspaper would like to say that the General Prosecutor's Office is biased in its
treatment of candidates.
"There are two aspects here, namely legal and socio-political.
The legal aspect: According to the General Prosecutor's Office, article
77 of the Kazakh Constitution and also article 19 of the Kazakh Criminal Procedure Code
consider a person innocent unless his/her guilt is proven by an efficient court judgment.
In addition to the national legislation, the law-enforcement official referred to article
11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says that a person charged with an
offense has the right to be considered innocent until his/her guilt is established
judicially in the course of an open trial, and to have every possibility to defense. In
connection with which we would like the Prosecutor's Office officials answer the following
question: when in 2002 you said that leaders of the group "Democratic Choice of
Kazakhstan" were guilty and disclosed in every detail the text of the indictment and
the evidence collected by the investigators, were you aware of this provision of law? If
so, why didn't this knowledge prevent your from what doing this and why didn't you prevent
other law-enforcement officials from doing this? It appears that ...what is allowed to the
officials, including General Prosecutor's Office officials, is not allowed to
opposition...
The socio-political aspect: As one of the presidential candidates have
been campaigning for bout a year already, and keeps appearing on air on almost every
television channel and on pages of the majority of domestic print editions, this is seen
as covering the activities of the incumbent head of state, and the supervising authorities
see nothing illegal in this. When his opponents seek to compensate at least in part for
this disadvantage, for example, through distribution of free papers or through meetings of
democratic opposition candidate with the public, this is seen as inadmissible campaigning
before the start of the official campaigning. For almost a year Zharmakhan Tuyakbai has
been slammed on all television station, in the pro-presidential and "neutral"
papers and on web sites, and this is regarded as a political struggle norm. The moment his
supporters dared to touch upon the Kazakhgate subject, the General Prosecutor's Office
immediately responded with an explanation that such behavior will be seen as distribution
of information intended to insult the honor, dignity and tarnish business reputation of a
presidential candidate, which is forbidden by paragraph 7, article 27 of the
Constitutional Law "On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan".
"We do not agree with such a selective approach of the General
Prosecutor's Office to defending the honor, dignity and business reputation of citizens.
We share the point of view of Nursutan Nazarbayev he voiced not but once in public: if a
media outlet publishes information compromising an official or a statesman, the latter
will either have to prove his innocence in a court of law or tender his resignation,"
the Respublica journalists write.
...As to the Kazakhgate. This trial has been underway for several years
already. The number of publications on Kazakh high-level corruption, both in Kazakhstan
and abroad, totals several thousands... Officials representatives of Kazakhstan or their
legal counsels have never tried to rebut journalist publications in a court of law. Nor
have they denied the existence of this scandalous case. The have never tried to explain to
the Kazakh citizens why Giffen – an adviser to our President! – alleges that his
payments of "honoraria" for some oil deals were made with the privity and
consent of the CIA and other US agencies in the US national interests...
"...If the Kazakhgate trial does exist, why we, the journalists,
must pretend that it does not exist? Yes, it's inadmissible to tarnish those, whose guilt
hasn't been proved yet, but in our opinion we have the right to advise our readers that
there are such charges pressed against the Kazakh high-ranking officials. Furthermore,
those charges have been officially included in the indictment read to James Giffen, and
the trial is due to begin in January 2006 in New York."
At the same time, the member of the public committee for the
presidential election control, Murat Auezov, believes that the prosecutors' decision to
seize the Svoboda Slova newspaper printrun is quite correct. He told reporters
about an opinion of his on 22th October at a press conference in Almaty, KZ-today
journalist reports.
If the newspaper "employs the black PR and simultaneously pretends
that the materials are harmless, this is not very smart, M. Auezov believes. "In this
case I support the behavior of the General Prosecutor's Office, he said. At the same time,
"should there emerge similar materials regarding Tuyakbai or other candidate, our
stand will remain the same," Auezov stressed.
On 21th October 2005 at 10 a.m. the Almaty interregional administrative
court chaired by judge B. Zaurbekov started to hear an administrative case against the
owner of the Svoboda Slova newspaper, editor-in-chief Gulzhan Yergaliyeva, who is
charged under article 100 of the Kazakh Administrative Code for distribution of patently
false information, reports web site Mizinov.kz. The lawsuit has been brought by chairman
of the Almaty territorial election committee, Daulet Baideldinov, who believes that the
article contains information insulting the honor and dignity of presidential candidate
Nursultan Nazarbayev.
According to Gulzhan Yergaliyeva, the trial was marred by serious legal
procedure violations. “No motions were granted. We were not allowed to read the
materials of the case. It was after we insisted on our request (in the course of a couple
of hours) that we were given copies of the documents in question. When we studied them, we
saw that the law-enforcement officials, who had illegally seized half of the copies of our
newspaper at 5 a.m., produced falsified documents about the seisure. In this connection,
we asked to call our witnesses. We asked that Baigeldinov come and tell how it could have
happened that he learnt the contents of the article and other details at 5 a.m., but our
request was denied. As a result, we concluded that the trial violated our rights and left
the courtroom,” told the newspaper editor-in-chief.
As it turned out, judge B. Zaurbekov of the Almaty interregional
administrative court ruled in absentia to fine Gulzhan Yergaliyeva, the newspaper
editor-in-chief, and to destroy the Svoboda Slova printrun.
Based on materials of Kazakhstan Today, Respublica web
site and Mizinov.kz
Internews-Kazakhstan, October 22, 2005 |
