Maria Melnikova

Affiliated media: Radio Azattyk, Journalist

Incident date: February 18, 2020

Attack type:

• Non-fatal attack / beating / injury / torture

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Adil Soz

Location: Kazakhstan, West Kazakhstan Province, Uralsk

Additional information:

The editor-in-chief of the Uralsk Week newspaper Lukpan Akhmedyarov came to the regional court of the West Kazakhstan region to cover the trial on the appeal of civil activist Maksat Aisautov. After the appellate instance upheld the ruling of the administrative court, Akhmedyarov approached Maksat Aisautov and, turning on the video camera on his smartphone, asked the defendant to answer several questions. At that moment one of the bailiffs grabbed the journalist's hand and demanded to turn off the camera. He motivated this by the so-called rule that nothing could be filmed in the courthouse. Other bailiffs, also without introducing themselves, tried to take the smartphone away from the correspondent of Radio Azattyk Maria Melnikova by force.