Journalist as a threat to Kazakhstan's national security

Muzaffar Suleymanov/CPJ Europe and Central Asia Research Associate

In a reply to CPJ's protest letter regarding the politicized imprisonment of journalist Igor Vinyavsky, Kazakhstan's General Prosecutor's Office said the prosecution wasn't retaliatory nor related to his journalism.

CPJ publicly appealed to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev after his country's security service, the KNB, raided Vinyavsky's newsroom and apartment, confiscated reporting equipment, and imprisoned the journalist for two months. The KNB also harassed and interrogated Vinyavsky's family and local journalists who protested against his incarceration.

"I need to inform you that the media representatives' opinion that Vinyavsky was prosecuted in retaliation for his reporting on Zhanaozen events is incorrect because the criminal case against him was not at all related to his journalism," A. Ogai of the General Prosecutor's office wrote in the official response to CPJ.

According to Ogai, Vinyavsky was jailed because he posed a threat to national security and planned to overthrow Kazakhstan's constitutional order. The plot, however, did not involve training revolutionary forces nor staging a coup-d'état backed by local army generals.