Yelena Semyonova

Affiliated media: Blogger, Human Rights Lawyer

Incident date: April 5, 2021

Attack type:

• prosecution for violation of the honour, dignity and business reputation; violation of privacy following civil lawsuit

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Adil Soz

Location: Kazakhstan, Almaty Province, Almaty

Additional information:

Correctional institution ZhD-158/1 in Taraz filed a claim to the Pavlodar city court to protect the business reputation against the human rights lawyer, who deals with the rights of prisoners, Yelena Semyonova. The reason was her post on Facebook entitled «It seems to me that in closed institutions it will soon be possible to buy anything, even a tank». The post is accompanied by a video message from inmate Babayev. The plaintiff asks to recognize the arguments from the video message as false, discrediting the business reputation of the plaintiff, and to publish a refutation on the social network. On June 24, the court ruled in partial satisfaction of the claim. The court found the actions of Semyonova illegal, and the information from the video message not corresponding to reality and defaming the business reputation of the plaintiff. According to the court decision, Semyonova must remove the video message from her page on the social network.