Law enforcement officers in Almaty are conducting searches at the apartment and office of the editor-in-chief of the publication ORDA Gulnara Bazhkenova. Criminal cases have been opened against the journalist on charges of disseminating deliberately false information.
This was confirmed to correspondents of several Kazakhstani media outlets by the Almaty city police department. According to the Telegram channel "HALYQSTAN", police are seizing electronic devices and materials to establish the circumstances surrounding the preparation and publication of materials.
The police department explained that the criminal cases were opened based on received complaints "regarding instances of repeated and deliberate dissemination of knowingly false information".
It is reported that one of the 2024 publications contained information about the alleged detention of a law enforcement officer while receiving a bribe.
"However, it has been reliably established that this incident did not take place. Thus, through B.'s actions, a false impression of the professional activities of the officer mentioned in the publication was created in society, and damage was caused to his business reputation," the police reported.
In another publication, according to law enforcement, distorted and unreliable data were published regarding the amount and causes of damage in a property dispute. This led to misleading the public and caused significant damage to the complainant's business reputation.
Furthermore, law enforcement agencies are conducting an investigation into other statements from victims concerning publications from previous years, which may also contain false information.
The police noted that the seizure of electronic devices and materials is being carried out to verify the origin of the published information. The investigation is ongoing, and all circumstances will be established in accordance with the law.
The events are unfolding against the backdrop of a protracted conflict surrounding the publication. At the beginning of autumn, businessman Maksat Ganiyev claimed to own a 70% stake in ORDA, and editor-in-chief Bazhkenova publicly accused businessman Vyacheslav Kim of demanding the writing of commissioned articles against entrepreneurs Timur Turlov and Aibek Barysov.