Refusal to transfer Asset Matayev to colony-settlement could be related to his professional activity

Beijing. March 19. Silkroadnews - Refusal to transfer Asset Matayev to the colony-settlement could be related to his professional activity, the President of the International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech “Adil Soz” Tamara Kaleyeva says.

“What bothers me is that the application for parole for (the head of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan) Seitkazy Matayev was not granted even six months after the due term. The reasons the authorities referred to could be described as ridiculous. I do not exclude the today’s situation with A. Matayev is very similar to one I’ve just mentioned. He has positive characteristics and records, it is a due time term, but once again there are obstacles coming. Could it all be not to allow Asset to fulfill his professional duties? He used to be a good and talented leader of KazTAG. He will start his work in mass media once the court gives an appropriate permission. Maybe the struggle is all about not to allow these plans to be implemented,” T. Kaleyeva said at a news conference on Monday.

With this, she noted, such a decision also hinders the execution of the court’s decision on compensation for allegedly inflicted damage.

“The fact that he did not fully pay the material damage is not a reason to refuse. He denies his guilt, but being a law-abiding citizen, he still implements the court’s decision. He is not a millionaire and cannot pay billions of tenge at once. He should work to support his family and implement judicial decisions, and he runs into obstacles. This all is very strange and disturbing,” she added.

In his turn, Andrei Petrov, the lawyer, stressed, there were no legal grounds for refusing A. Matayev in his appeal.

“The court announced only the operative part of the resolution. We both, defense team and everyone present in the court, were shocked by what we heard. Yet, I cannot imagine what the judge will specifically write in resolution text based on the criminal-executive legislation, what arguments he will refer to not to satisfy the petition. In our legislation we have quite a small number of reasons for this. The court rejects if a person is convicted for especially serious crimes or crimes related to extremism, or if the point in case is about the death penalty or could be replaced with life imprisonment. Neither of the categories could be related to Asset. Everyone knows, the administration of the facility where he serves his sentence gave him good records. Moreover, A. Matayev has already paid about 37 million tenge to reimburse the alleged damages. In this situation, the law does not say the change of restraint requires full compensation for damage. Now we are waiting for the court order, I hope tomorrow we will receive it and then appeal,” A. Petrov said.

Chairman of the Board of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan S. Matayev said he is ready to apply to the international organizations to protect his son’s rights.

“For me this whole situation is not clear, how it happened, what it was related to? According to the legislation there should have been few conditions met: 1/3 of the duration of the sentence to be approached, the term was due on February 28 this year, there should be no malicious violations of discipline. As you know, we have walked 3 prisons, there were no violations. He must have a 2nd or 3rd degree of behavior record. By the decision of the administrative commission, he has been granted the second degree. The petition said he has three young children. Also there were letters from a number of media agencies saying they were ready to recruit him to work. There are no legal grounds for refusal. This is lawlessness. Thus, I can assume a “telephone law” or control from Astana played its role. We had a resonant case. We did not agree to admit guilt. I will not be silent. I will contact the international organizations. Foreign media agencies representatives called. Why should I remain silent if we did not violate anything?” S. Mataev stressed.

To remind, on October 3, 2016, journalist Asset Matayev was sentenced to five years in prison for alleged fraud. A number of international journalistic and human rights organizations considered the verdict politically motivated.