During a hearing in the Almalinsky District Court of Almaty in the case of lawyer and blogger Adiletkhan Moldakhan, journalists claimed they were unable to leave the room where they were waiting for the end of the proceedings. According to them, this prevented them from obtaining a comment from the defendant after the court hearing.
WHAT HAPPENED IN COURT
According to media representatives, during the court hearing, the door of the room where the journalists were located was held shut from the outside by court staff. The journalists claim that when they tried to leave, they broke the door handle. In their opinion, this prevented them from promptly obtaining a comment from Adiletkhan Moldakhan after the proceedings ended.
Journalist Ruslan Utepbay reported that, in his words, a similar situation had occurred the previous day. He published a video of the incident on social media.
WHAT THE COURT SAID
The press service of the Almalinsky District Court of Almaty denied the information about the deliberate restriction of the journalists' movement. They stated that a separate room had been allocated for media representatives to work in, and that the cause of the incident was a technical fault — a broken door handle.
The court emphasised that no one was deliberately detained.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE HEARING
At the hearing, the state prosecutor presented a new indictment. As a result, the charge against Adiletkhan Moldakhan was reclassified from Part 2 to Part 3 of Article 274 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan ("Dissemination of knowingly false information resulting in major damage or other grave consequences").
According to Ruslan Utepbay, no verdict was reached in the case on 3 July.
CONTEXT
Adiletkhan Moldakhan was detained on 31 March 2026 after publishing a video about a high-profile road traffic accident on Al-Farabi Avenue in Almaty. In his posts, he claimed that illegal races had been taking place on the road before the accident, and that, in his version of events, some of the participants might have been cars linked to senior police officers.
Following this, a criminal case was opened against the blogger on charges of disseminating knowingly false information. In early June 2026, the trial began in the Almalinsky District Court of Almaty. At the first hearing, Adiletkhan Moldakhan, it was reported, pleaded guilty to the charge brought against him.
