Journalist arrested in Kyiv at Kazakhstan’s request
Kazakh journalist Zhanara Akhmet has been arrested in Kyiv, her lawyer Vladislav Hryshchenko told Hromadske.
According to her lawyer, the journalist and public figure was arrested because she was placed on the Interpol wanted list by the Kazakh government.
Zhanara Akhmet and her 9 year-old son have been living in Kyiv for at least a year, and are applying for political asylum.
“On October 21, the lights were turned off for about 18 hours in Zhanara Akhmet’s apartment. When she went out to the corridor to see what was happening (because there was light in the whole house), she was approached by two people in civilian clothes. They called themselves officers of the Ukrainian police, but did not show any documents,” Hryshchenko explained. According to him, Zhanara Akhmet assumes that they were officers of the Kazakh law enforcement organs.
Akhmet was able to call the residential complex’s security and ask for the police to be called. When the police arrived, the people in civilian clothes absconded. “And the officers of the National Police who had arrived received information that at this address there is allegedly living a person who is hiding from the Kazakh law enforcement organs, and is on the Interpol wanted list,” Hryshchenko noted.
According to Hryshchenko, the defense has not been informed of the nature of the case Zhanara Akhmet is wanted for, or when she was placed on the Interpol wanted list.
On Monday, October 23, the court will decide whether or not to arrest her as part of the extradition procedure.
This is already the third such situation in recent months. On September 20, Uzbek journalist Narzullo Okhunjonov was arrested in the Kyiv airport, and on October 14, Azerbaijani opposition journalist Fikret Huseynli was arrested in Borispol.