(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Kayrbek Suleymenov, RSF protested the attack against Lira Baiseitova, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper “Respublika 2000”, which took place on Friday 15 September 2000 in Almaty. Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general, stated: “This attack is directly linked to Lira Baiseitova’s work as a journalist. It […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Kayrbek Suleymenov, RSF protested the attack against Lira Baiseitova, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper “Respublika 2000”, which took place on Friday 15 September 2000 in Almaty. Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general, stated: “This attack is directly linked to Lira Baiseitova’s work as a journalist. It is your responsibility to take all necessary measures to guarantee her security, as well as her right to freely exercise her work as a journalist. We also ask that you see to it that Lira Baiseitova’s attacker is found and tried, and keep us informed of developments in the case.”
According to information collected by RSF, Baiseitova was attacked and beaten on Friday 15 September, in the evening, following the publication of an article implicating Nurla Kaparov, the director of a regional refinery. In her article, the journalist suggested that a road accident in which a passenger in Kaparov’s car died had resulted from Kaparov’s drunk driving. Baiseitova stated that her attacker violently struck her in the face and threatened her with the following statement: “If you write about Kaparov again we will kill you.”
