(Adil Soz/IFEX) – The press agency of the opposition party For a Just Kazakhstan has reported that five journalists and a camera operator were detained briefly by Almaty police on 19 October 2005. They include Saya Issa of “Svoboda Slova” newspaper, Olesya Gassanova and Almas Nurdos of the online publication Stan.kz, Ruslan Sapabekov of “Juma […]
(Adil Soz/IFEX) – The press agency of the opposition party For a Just Kazakhstan has reported that five journalists and a camera operator were detained briefly by Almaty police on 19 October 2005. They include Saya Issa of “Svoboda Slova” newspaper, Olesya Gassanova and Almas Nurdos of the online publication Stan.kz, Ruslan Sapabekov of “Juma Times-Data nedeli” newspaper, Yeldes Myrzakhmetov of “Respublica-Soz” and Nurlan Daurenbekov, a camera operator for the opposition party’s press agency.
At the time of the incident, the journalists were covering a police raid on the opposition party’s offices. Police searched the offices after cordoning off the area. Although the journalists showed their press credentials, all of them were taken to the Medeu District Internal Affairs Department in Almaty. The police forced Olesya Gassanova and Almas Nurdos to erase footage and also seized tapes from Nurlan Daurenbekov. The journalists asked to speak to a lawyer but police denied their request. The journalists were released two hours later. No formal charges were laid against them.
