In Kazakhstan, torture fighter was deprived of lawyer license
The Kazakh lawyers, Amanzhol Mukhamedyarov and Erlan Gazymzhanov, were deprived of legal licenses in court. Both lawyers are widely known in the country. Amanzhol Mukhamedyarov is a member of the Coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of Kazakhstan against torture and has repeatedly participated in processes in such cases. Erlan Gazymzhanov is better known for his involvement in political affairs.
According to the Coalition of Kazakhstan’s NGOs against torture, the confrontation between the judicial system and lawyers began after Mukhamedyarov and Gazymzhanov made “a repost of the trial on social networks, where judge of court No.2 of Almaty district of Nur-Sultan, Gulzhan Ubasheva, told the prosecutor off in a more excited tone”.
“The judge Ubasheva and the chairman of the district court considered that the lawyers violated the article 79 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of personal data law) and the article 147 of the same code (violation of privacy) and filed a complaint with the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” the NGO’s Coalition against torture said. “However, the police did not find the offense in the lawyer’s act. Then, apparently at the request of the judges, the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit to deprive the lawyers of their license, referring to the “Rules for the technical use of audio and video recording means that record the court session”, as well as the code of lawyer ethics. Although the act of lawyers did not receive the assessment of the disciplinary commission of lawyers prescribed by the law.”
The Coalition notes that the repost of lawyers is not an offense, because a record from the trial cannot be considered as “violation of privacy” and “violation of personal data law”, because the judge, being a public servant, performed her duties.
“On the contrary, the requirement to keep records from lawsuits in secret violate the right to freedom of speech and free distribution of information, as well as create the prerequisites for making knowingly unlawful decisions,” the Coalition notes. “Despite everything, the Esilsky District court of the capital, having satisfied the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice, created a dangerous precedent that allows to remove from the game any lawyer whom the judge did not like for whatever reason. In this regard, we strongly disagree with the fact that the lawyers were deprived of their licenses. The Coalition of Kazakhstan’s NGOs against torture calls on Kazakhstan’s justice to reverse the rash decision, which looks like revenge for the revealed shortcomings of the judicial system and is a serious blow to the reputation of Kazakh legal proceedings, including at the international level.”
