The Bishkek City Court considered an appeal of 24.kg news agency. The management of the news agency appealed against the ruling of the investigating judge of the Pervomaisky District Court, who returned the agency’s petition against the investigator’s actions to seal the office premises.
Lawyer Nurbek Sydykov recalled: as a justification for the return it was stated that this action of the investigator is not provided for by the Criminal Procedure Code, in this regard, the court cannot assess the legality and validity of the actions and recommended contacting the prosecutor’s office.
«Not agreeing with this ruling, the news agency’s lawyers appealed to the Bishkek City Court. Having considered the complaint, it upheld the ruling of the investigating judge,» he said.
It should be noted that in the complaint 24.kg news agency asked the district court to recognize the decision of the senior investigator for especially important cases of the State Investigative Committee of the State Committee for National Security, Erlan Akynbekov, as illegal and unfounded and to oblige the violation to be eliminated.
Employees of the State Committee for National Security came to the office of 24.kg news agency on January 16 at about 11 a.m. General Director Asel Otorbaeva, Editors-in-Chief Anton Lymar and Makhinur Niyazova were taken for interrogation. Equipment and personal mobile phones of employees were confiscated. The SCNS said that the search at 24.kg news agency was conducted as part of a criminal case under the article «Propaganda of War» of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic. On January 17, the managers were summoned for questioning again.
