Kazakhstan: former mayor of Almaty sues opposition journalist and his wife
Former mayor of Almaty and now first deputy chairman of the party “Nur Otan”, Bauyrzhan Baybek, filed a lawsuit against opposition journalist Zhanbolat Mamay (head of the unregistered opposition Democratic party) and his wife Inga Imanbay (journalist of Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights).
The reason, that prompted Baybek to go to court, was a film that Mamay shot in the style of Navalny and posted it on YouTube.
In the video investigation entitled “Bauyrzhan Baybek: the corrupt business empire of the son of Nazarbayev’s classmate”, Zhanbolat Mamay says that the former mayor of Almaty has created a huge business empire and is the owner of business centers and construction companies. In addition, the opposition politician accused the party projectionist of appropriating state-owned land.
“We are ready to meet with Baybek in court and prove the corruption of Baybek himself and his family,” Mamay says in the preamble of his film.
The film was released on April 13. And to date, it has been viewed by over 40 thousand users.
On April 19, Baybek gave an interview to a former parliament member and now blogger Tanirbergen Berdongarov, in which he denied the accusations against him.
“Zhanbolat Mamay calls his speech a journalistic investigation, but it provides links to only one source – the fake Telegram channel Uzun Qulaq. If you analyze their content, then this is anti-constitutional activity, inciting social hatred, an attempt to sow chaos and discord within our society. Zhanbolat Mamay takes this fake channel as a basis and voices their information personally on his behalf. I want to say that Mr. Mamay is guided by the principles of the Third Reich. One of the Nazi ideologists, Joseph Goebbels, said that “the more monstrous a lie is, the more willingly people will believe in it,” Baybek said.
He also noted that he intends to file a lawsuit against the journalist. On April 30, it became known that Baybek had fulfilled his threat.
According to the lawyer Aizhan Tashenova, representing the interests of Baybek, the lawsuit was filed in a civil procedure and its main requirement is the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation. Tashenova noted that her client intends to prove the groundlessness and absurdity of the charges against Mamay and Imanbay. At the same time, she emphasized that Baybek didn’t put forward claims for material compensation for the moral damage inflicted on him.
“He is guided by the main goal – to establish the truth, the falsity of the information disseminated by Zh. Mamay and I. Imanbay, as well as to clear his good name,” the lawyer explained.
It’s worth recalling that Bauyrzhan Baybek is the son of Kadyrgali Baybek, who really studied in the same class with Nursultan Nazarbayev. Many people explain the rapid rise of Baybek Jr. on the political arena by this fact. It’s also worth noting that the party “Nur Otan”, where Baybek holds the post of deputy chairman, was created by Nursultan Nazarbayev, and it’s he who heads it.
The journalist Zhanbolat Mamay previously headed the newspaper “Sayasi Qalam – Tribuna” [“Tribune”], which is now closed. In 2017, Mamay was sentenced to three years of restriction of freedom and banned from engaging in journalistic activities for a similar period. He was found guilty of aiding the former head of BTA Bank Mukhtar Ablyazov in laundering some of the funds stolen from BTA Bank under the guise of carrying out legal financial transactions through the newspaper “Sayasi Qalam – Tribuna” [“Tribune”].
Mamay himself didn’t admit the charges. According to the journalist and his supporters, these accusations were farfetched.
His wife Inga Imanbay previously headed the Kazakh-language newspaper “Zhas Alash”. However, she was dismissed by the owner of the media at the request of the authorities. The reason was the harsh critical materials addressed to Nursultan Nazarbayev.
