Opposition weekly’s closure upheld on appeal

A court confirmed the opposition weekly ADAM bol’s closure on appeal on 26 February, when editor Guljan Yergaliyeva again condemned the political nature of the proceedings. At the end of the hearing, she announced that a new newspaper called ADAM had been registered two days before. Its editor will be her son, Ayan Sharipbayev, ADAM bol’s former owner. ----------- 05.02.2015 - Hounded through courts, Kazakh opposition weekly battles for survival Update: The start of the ADAM bol appeal hearing has been postponed until 26 February at the request of the prosecution, whose representative said he was ill. Editor Guljan Yergaliyeva has called off her hunger strike because it could have had a dire impact on her health if she had tried to continue until the hearing’s new date, but her demands are as valid as ever. ------------------------ 04.02.2015 An appeal hearing opening tomorrow will decide the fate of the Kazakh opposition magazine ADAM bol, which is contesting its court-ordered closure in December. The editor, Guljan Yergaliyeva, who is supported by several high-profile civil society figures, began a hunger strike on 19 January to support a request for the various judgements against the magazine in recent months to be quashed. The judicial persecution of ADAM bol has brought the magazine to its knees and its editorial staff are preparing for the convictions to be overturned. Prosecuted by the municipality of Almaty, the country’s financial capital, the weekly was found guilty of conducting “pro-war propaganda” in December and ordered to close indefinitely. ADAM bol disputed this drastic verdict, pronounced at the end of a trial marked by a number of procedural flaws. On 9 January, a court bailiff presented himself at the editorial office to collect a fine imposed on the magazine in late November in another case. Since the weekly had been closed down after publication had been suspended for a month, it was unable to pay the required 5 million tengue (more than 22,000 euros) and appealed for donations from readers. The magazine’s owner Ayan Sharipbayev was warned that he could face criminal proceedings if the fine were not paid. “The judgements handed down on ADAM bol constitute political persecution,” commented Johann Bihr, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. “The courts are being used to stifle this opposition weekly in the same way as was done recently to Pravdivaya Gazeta and Assandi Times. We fully support the demands of Guljan Yergaliyeva who is merely asking for her right to a fair trial to be respected and for an end to this harassment.” On 19 January, Yergaliyeva began a hunger strike to draw attention to the irregular nature of the proceedings against the magazine and political persecution behind them. Two weeks later she has become very weak as she carries on with her case. Ramazan Eserguepov, head of the organization Journalists in Danger, also stopped taking food on 26 January in solidarity with Yergaliyeva. He was admitted to hospital six days later. A demonstration in support of ADAM bol was held in Almaty on 24 January. As Yergaliyeva, some of her colleagues and Rozlana Taoukina, a human rights activist and member of the ADAM bol support committee, were about to go to the demonstration, they were detained and questioned by the police for two hours. When they were released, Taoukina and one of the detained journalists were still able to attend a second demonstration. Kazakhstan is ranked 161st out of 180 countries in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders. For more information, read the previous Reporters Without Borders statement on this subject: - Orchestrated throttling of Kazakh opposition weekly (Photo : www.adilsoz.kz)