Opposition journalist accused of rape is jailed for three and a half years

Reporters Without Borders denounced the prison sentence imposed today on opposition journalist Sergei Duvanov as legally worthless because of numerous irregularities and suggested it was part of the Kazakh government's repression of the media. Duvanov, editor of the opposition magazine Bulletin, published by the International Bureau for Human Rights, was jailed for three and a half years by a court in Almaty for allegedly raping a minor. The prosecution asked for seven years, but the judge ruled that the defendant did not know the age of the victim. "The repression that Duvanov and all of Kazakhstan's independent and opposition media are subjected to by President Nursultan Nazarbayev's regime would suggest that this case is politically motivated," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard. "We expected that the authorities to give him a fair and open trial, but the many irregularities in the investigation and constant violation of defence rights during the trial means the conviction has no legal value." Duvanov was arrested on 28 October last year and accused of raping a 14-year-old girl. He had been due to fly the next day to the United States to present a report on democracy and human rights in Kazakhstan. He went on hunger strike for 10 days in a bid to prove his innocence. At a press conference at the European Commission in Brussels on 29 November, President Nazarbayev said Duvanov's guilt had been proved. His trial opened on 24 December, but his lawyers were not allowed to examine the entire case file. Concluding that the trial was a farce, Duvanov dismissed his lawyers from the case on 23 January, the day after the court had rejected an application by them for the charges to be dropped for lack of proof and because of the many legal irregularities. Duvanov's lawyers said he turned his back in protest when the verdict was read out. One of them, Yevgeny Zhovtis, told Reporters Without Borders that the trial was "a provocation" since no proof of guilt had been presented and "basic legal principles were abused." The journalist is one of the government's strongest critics and regularly denounces the harassment of independent media and the opposition. He is also being prosecuted for "harming the honour and dignity" of President Nazarbayev. On 28 August last year, he was beaten up by thugs and badly injured. During a fact-finding mission to Almaty in July last year, a Reporters Without Borders representative met several times with Duvanov, who spoke of the intimidation and legal harassment by the authorities. He said they would probably accuse him in a sex or drugs scandal. "I'm still free and in good health," he said, "but this can't last." Local human rights groups and opposition journalists say political opponents are regularly discredited by the secret police to intimidate them or make them talk. Artur Platanov, a political journalist for the independent TV station KTK, was badly beaten in Almaty on 16 August last year. The daughter of Lira Baysetova, editor of the opposition weekly Respublika, died on 21 June last year in suspicious circumstances while in police hands.