Lukpan Akhmedyarov

Affiliated media: Uralsk Week, Editor-in-chief

Incident date: March 21, 2019

Attack type:

• Short-term detention

Source: Adil Soz

Location: Kazakhstan, West Kazakhstan Province, Uralsk

Additional information:

On March 21st, Lukpan Akhmedyarov, a journalist from Uralsk, posted a message on his Facebook page saying that he had been detained by riot policemen in the square in front of the Astana mayor's office for trying to prevent a provocateur from approaching a journalist who had been interviewed citizens present at the square for the renaming of the capital. Akhmedyarov was taken to the police station. "The main questions related to my connection (and probably that of all those arrested) with the group "Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan" and our participation in the unsanctioned rally. I was told that I was a witness in a criminal case. It ended with the prosecutor explaining our detentions and checking for involvement with the DCK on mobile phone apps. I insisted that I would not put my phone in anyone else's hands. The investigator checked, whilst I held the phone, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram and groups. Without finding any connections, they let me go," the journalist wrote.