(Adil Soz/IFEX) – Journalist Kazis Toguzbayev continues to face criminal charges for insulting the honor and dignity of President Nursultan Nazarbayev under Article 318 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan, after publishing two articles on news site http://www.kub.kz entitled, “Mafia regime shadows the murderers of Altynbek Sarsenbayev” and “Roman Catholic Pope and Astana Pope – […]
(Adil Soz/IFEX) – Journalist Kazis Toguzbayev continues to face criminal charges for insulting the honor and dignity of President Nursultan Nazarbayev under Article 318 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan, after publishing two articles on news site http://www.kub.kz entitled, “Mafia regime shadows the murderers of Altynbek Sarsenbayev” and “Roman Catholic Pope and Astana Pope – feel the difference.”
The 23 November 2006 hearings at the Bostandyk District Court of Almaty were initiated following a report by the Justice Ministry’s Center of Court Expertise, which found the articles to be insulting the honor and dignity of President Nazarbayev, in particular the sentence: “In a certain respect, he did commit the murder of Sarsenbayev.” Both the journalist and his attorney say that the meaning of this sentence refers to a Constitutional provision, which stipulates that the president is the guarantor of rights and liberties of any Kazakhstan citizen.
Furthermore, the journalist denied the charges in the court, saying he had “no intention to insult the honor and dignity of the head of the state” and that he had tried, instead, to “help the president realize and correct the mistakes.”
The next hearing is scheduled for 21 December. Possible punishment under the article varies from a fine of up to 971,000 tenge (approx. US$7,600), or 10 months of his salary, to two years of correctional labor or a maximum prison term of three years.
