NGO calls for immediate release of journalist

The immediate release of a journalist languishing in a Kygyz prison was called for by Internews, an international NGO promoting press freedom worldwide on Friday. The group says Samagan Orozaliev, jailed in the southern city of Jalal-Abad, is being held on false grounds. "This is a completely fabricated case," Internews country director, Christoph Schuepp in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek told IRIN. "Such incidents prove that in this country some people are above the law and unfortunately, journalists are increasingly becoming the targets of such individuals." Kyrgyzstan is a difficult country for journalists to operate freely and this is just another example of that, he added. According to the US-based group, Orozaliev was arrested on 28 May after police officials found US $300 in his clothing, money that he allegedly received after blackmailing a local politician/businessman in Jalal-Abad. The television journalist claims he was framed as he was preparing material about Ergesh Torobaev, a deputy to the local assembly and director of the local electric authorities. Two days prior to his arrest, Orazaliev filed a complaint against the businessman's son with the local police office after allegedly being followed by members of Torobaev's family. Orazaliev said they demanded him to hand over his taped material and not to make it public. On 27 May, he agreed to show them exactly what he had filmed and was invited to another meeting on 28 May. During the latter, the journalist claims the businessman's son slipped US $300 into his pocket at which point he was arrested on extortion charges by police. Internews lawyer, Akmat Alagushev, who visited the journalist in prison and is currently acting as his advocate, told IRIN he was shocked by conditions in the prison where the father of three was being held. "Conditions in this jail are absolute hell," he said. "The place is rife with tuberculosis and I am very concerned about his health. We have to do something to get him out of there," he added. Alagushev maintained that even if he committed the crime they said he had, no one deserved to be living in such conditions, particularly as the case was still being investigated. However, following a protest letter to the state prosecutor of the Kyrgyz republic on 25 June, regional prosecutor Kubanichbek Bakiev personally refused on 2 July to set the journalist free. In a letter to Orozaliev's mother, Bakiev wrote: "Taking into account the seriousness of the accusations and the personality, the chosen punishment for your son, - imprisonment - cannot be changed until after the end of the official investigation." Schuepp, who described the incident as a crime against freedom of the press and called for his immediate release remarked: "There are some people in this country who are taboo subjects for journalists - it appears Orozaliev touched upon one such individual."