Somebody influential hampers investigation of attack on journalists in Almaty - Duvanov

Almaty. August 27. KazTAG - Somebody influential hampers investigation of the attack on journalists in Almaty, said Sergey Duvanov, head of information-monitoring center of Kazakhstani international bureau for human rights and rule of law.
"It looks like the law enforcement bodies are trying to hamper investigation of attack on the journalists and attorneys in the press centre of Kazakhstani international bureau for human rights and rule of law. It feels like somebody influential makes pressure on police and the prosecutor's office, hampers the process of criminal case against people who broke the press-conference, attacked the journalists, robbed the employees of the bureau, they do not investigate the circumstances of policeman ignorance of the illegal actions," said Duvanov.
The bureau reminded that after the attack and frustration of the press conference several journalists applied to police.
"Up to date, the attack on the journalists has been qualified as arbitrariness (Art.389). Employees of the information department of Kazakhstani bureau for human rights and rule of law Andrey Grishin, Sergey Duvanov and Dmitriy Tikhonov have also applied. They have been recognized as victims," said the message.
The bureau for human rights also sent an official request to police asking to qualify the actions of Asabayev R., district police officer, who was present at the meeting but did not take any actions.
"Since that moment the events have been developing as follows. The police department of Almaty got the message on the same day (July 30) and redirected it to the local police service, which was illegal, as in compliance with P. 4 Art. 187 on cases on criminal violations, Art.371 says the pretrial investigation is conducted by the interior affairs bodies or anti-corruption service which initiated pretrial investigation," said the message.
On August 2 the application was redirected to the police department of Auezov district of Almaty. The application was sent "without an attachment which contained all the video evidences of the attack in the press center", as a result, the police department "refused to accept the documents for investigation and drew out the process".