Kanat Kanimetov

Affiliated media: April TV, Journalist

Incident date: June 14, 2022

Attack type:

• Warnings, pre-trial complaints, questioning and other extra-judicial actions

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Journalist's Facebook account

Location: Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek

Additional information:

Journalist Kanat Kanimetov received a warning from the authorities concerning his Facebook post about the death of political analyst Marat Kazakpayev, previously arrested on charges of treason, who died in hospital without regaining consciousness, where he had been taken from a cell of the detention center. In his post, the journalist questioned the official version of Kazakpayev’s death and suggested that he could have been «driven» to his death. «What do I mean by ’drive him to death’? To deliberately not change the measure of restraint (Kazakpayev was held in the detention center for more than a year), to apply ’other’ methods of influence on him (the same ones his wife was talking about)», — Kanimetov wrote. The journalist believes that the warnings are an attempt to pressure on freedom of speech. «The document reads in plain text: if I do not shut up, then they will initiate criminal proceedings under the article «Knowingly false report of a crime», — he wrote on Facebook.