ISLAMABAD
A European journalist support group has condemned the sentencing of the Kazakh opposition journalist, Sergei Duvanov, describing it as "legally worthless", and suggesting it was part of the Kazakh government's repression of the media.
"We have talked to his lawyers and the international observers such as the OSCE [Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe], and they said there were a lot of irregularities during the inquiry and the rights of the defence were not respected during the trial," the head of the Europe desk for Reporters Without Borders (RWB), Soria Blatmann, told IRIN from Paris on Wednesday. "This trial doesn't have any legal value," she added.
Duvanov, editor of the opposition magazine Bulletin, published by the Almaty-based International Bureau for Human Rights, was jailed for three and a half years by a court in Almaty for allegedly raping a girl. The prosecution asked for seven years, but the judge ruled that the defendant had not known the age of the victim.
"The repression that Duvanov and all of Kazakhstan's independent and opposition media are subjected to by President Nursultan Nazarbayev's regime would suggest that this case is politically motivated," said RSF's secretary-general, Robert Ménard, in a statement issued on Tuesday, following news of the sentencing.
"We expected the authorities to give him a fair and open trial, but the many irregularities in the investigation and constant violation of defence rights during the trial mean the conviction has no legal value."
Duvanov was arrested on 28 October, 2002, a day before he was due to fly to the United States to present a report on democracy and human rights in Kazakhstan. He went on hunger strike for 10 days in a bid to prove his innocence. But at a press conference at the EC in Brussels on 29 November, Nazarbayev said Duvanov's guilt had been proved.
His trial opened on 24 December, but, according to RSF, his lawyers were not allowed to examine the entire case file. "Concluding that the trial was a farce, Duvanov dismissed his lawyers from the case on 23 January, the day after the court had rejected an application by them for the charges to be dropped for lack of proof and because of the many legal irregularities," the RSF statement said.
Duvanov's lawyers said he turned his back in protest when the verdict was read out. One of them, Yevgeny Zhovtis, told RSF that the trial was "a provocation" since no proof of guilt had been presented and "basic legal principles were abused".
The journalist has been one of the government's strongest critics and has regularly condemned the harassment of independent media and the opposition. He is also being prosecuted for "harming the honour and dignity" of Nazarbayev. On 28 August last year, he was beaten up by thugs and badly
injured.
During a fact-finding mission to Almaty in July last year, an RWB representative met Duvanov several times, and later reported that Duvanov had referred to the intimidation and legal harassment by the authorities. He said they would probably accuse him of involvement in a sex or drugs scandal. "I'm still free and in good health," he said, "but this can't last."
Blatmann said RSF had already written to the authorities asking for a fair trial and would support Duvanov in an appeal. "We know that Sergei is in a very bad state of mind. But we have to fight again and support him, because this is a very unfair trial and unacceptable," she added.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions