Caselist - PEN International

54and is not allowed to change his permanent address. He was due toreport to police on 14 November 2011 but failed to attend. Poczobut hasbeen subject to frequent periods of harassment and short arrests for hiswritings. See previous caselists.CROATIACase closedIvo PUKANIC: co-owner and director of the weekly news magazineNational was killed by a bomb on 23 October 2008 outside theheadquarters of the magazine in central Zagreb. The marketing directorof the National was also killed. This was not the first attack against IvoPukanic, aged 47. There are reports that in 2002 a man attempted to stabhim, and that since then he was constantly under police protection. Again,in April 2008, an unidentified attacker shot at Pukanic close to his flat inZagreb. Some reports linked the attacks to Pukanic’s critical reporting,others suggest that there may be personal reasons behind it. On earlyNovember 2008 it was reported that the Croatian police had chargedfive men, three of whom are arrested, and that it had issued internationalarrest warrants for the other two. One of the fugitives is believed to bea Bosnian Serb, former member of the group called Red Berets. Theauthorities are reportedly working together with the Bosnian police.In early June 2009 it was reported that three men had been detainedin Belgrade, Serbia, on suspicion of participating in Pukanic’s killing.Reports say that on 26 October 2009, Prosecutors in Serbia and Croatiacharged eight suspects over Pukanic’s killing. Further information: InZagreb, in early February 2010, a trial began against four of the suspectsof Pukanic’s murder. The other suspects remain in custody in Serbia andBosnia. Case closed due to lack of further information.FRANCEOn trial – investigation*Michel CHAMBRU: journalist with the online information siteAllobrogues Voice, was arrested on 2 November 2010 and accusedof interfering with the running of trains at Chambery, Savoy region.Chambru had been covering the protests in Chambery for AllonbroguesVoice, however, he was arrested and accused of being a protester after hewas unable to produce a press identification card to the authorities. Histrial is due to begin on 15 September 2011 and he could face up to sixmonths in prison or a fine of €1500 if convicted.Death threat*Fabrice ARFI: journalist for the French online newspaper Mediapart. On31 August 2011 Arfi filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s officeafter he received a number of death threats. The threats began on 2 July2011, shortly before the publication of an article about arms dealer ZiadTakieddine, which was part of a sensitive investigation Arfi and colleagueKarl Laske had been conducting into armed attacks in Karachi, Pakistan.The first threat was allegedly sent from the phone of Pierre Sllier, founderand chief executive of the economic intelligence firm Salamandre, whichreportedly has links with various arms and counter-espionage circles andhas several contracts with the French president’s office. When Laskecontracted Sellier on 5 July 2011, he reportedly told the reporter that hewould “put bullets in [Arfi’s] head”GEORGIAImprisoned – Investigation*Viktor LAZIC: Serbian travel writer for the Belgrade-based daily Press,was detained on 3 Septmeber 2011 on the border between Georgia andSouth Ossetia. According to the journalist he was detained becausehe had allegedly crossed the border of the disputed territory of SouthOssetia. He is reportedly being held in solitary confinement.Attacked*Tamaz KUPREISHVILI, Darejan PAATSHVILI, Nato GOGELIA,Zaira MIKATADZE, David MCHEDLIDZE, Diana KHOPERIA,and Beka SIVSIVADZE and Giorgi MAMATSASHVILI: Journalistswith Netgazeti newspaper, Interpressnews, Guria News, Resonance newspaper,Media.ge, Obiektivi and Asava-Dasavali newspaper, respectively.All were injured during an attack by the Police Special Forces on 26May 2011 aimed at dispersing a crowd of opposition protestors in Tbilisiwho were calling on the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili.The police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to dispersethe protestors, minutes after the permit for the demonstrators’ rally hadexpired. The protestors had been ordered to disperse by midnight inorder to make way for a military parade planned for the following day. Itwas reported that 4 people were killed during the clamp down and over37 were injured. Many more remain missing following the attacks andsubsequent detention of protestors.GREECEBrief Detention*Milena GJORGJIEVSKA: journalist with the daily Vest, was arrestedon 16 August 2011 along with Goran Momirovski of Kanal 5 television.The two journalists had been accompanying a group of senior citizens,who has been born in Greece but were living in the Republic ofMacedonia, and were trying to obtain their birth certificates in Florina,north-western Greece. They were detained by police and held for twohours while the authorities reviewed the filmed material, allegedly toensure that no public building had been filmed.ITALYHarassedFrank SFARZO: freelance blogger from Perugia, created the Englishlanguageblog Perugia Shock in 2007, which criticised the officialmurder enquiry into the death of British student Meredith Kercher. On28 October 2010 - the day American student Amanda Knox and ItalianRaffaele Sollecito were indicted were convicted of murdering Ketcher– Sfarzo says he was approached outside the city court by members ofSquandra Mobile who shoved and hit him, saying “You are pissing usoff”, in reference to his coverage of the trial. During the trial of Knoxand Sollecito, he was continually harassed by the Squandra Mobile,who regularly tried to prevent him entering the court, seized his mobilephone, mouthed insults at him in court and stared over his shoulder ashe took notes. On 28 October 2008, five officers of Squandra Mobileforcibly entered his apartment without producing a warrant. Four of themen forced Sfarzo to the ground, assaulted and handcuffed him. Sfarzowas then taken to Perugia city hospital where the officers claimed he hadattacked them; they persuaded a doctor to issue a medical report of theinjuries Sfarzo was alleged to have caused. They also brought him beforea psychiatrist who the pressured, unsuccessfully, to have Sfarzo declaredinsane. He was taken to the police headquarters where he claims to havebeen referred to as “the bastard who defends Knox”. The following daySfarzo was charged with “using violence and threats to resist publicofficials”. He is currently pending trial on these charges. If convicted hefaces up to 6 years in prison.Update: On 10 May 2011 Sfarzo reported that he received an emailfrom Google informing him that a court order had been issued for the“preventive closure” of his blog. The court order was the result of alawsuit filed by Perugia Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini against PerugiaShock for “defamation, carried out by means of a website”. Mignini is thelead prosecutor in the Kercher case.KAZAKHSTANKilled – Trial of killers concludedGennady PAVLYUK: journalist, better known by the pen name IbragimRumtambek¸died on 22 December 2009 after being thrown from anupper-story window of an apartment building in Almaty. On 28 March2011, a spokesman for the Kazakh Interior Ministry told journalists thatthe investigation into the murder had been completed, and three menwere to be charged with the murder, which was claimed to be the resultof a failed robbery attempt. However, there has been concern that theauthorities have classified the killing as a robbery without investigatingthe possibility that the murdered was a result of his journalism. Accordingto some reports, Pavlyuk had intended to start a pro-opposition onlinenewspaper and had travelled to Almaty to meet with potential partners onthe project; this was denied by the authorities investigating the murder.Trial: The trial of the 3 people accused of the Pavlyuk’s murder began inAlmaty on 06 June 2011. One of the defendants, former Kyrgyzstan StateCommittee for National Security agent Aldayar Ismankulov, pleadednot guilty and claimed the case against him was politically motivated.Sentence: On 11 October 2011 the court found Aldayar Ismankulov,Almas Igilikov and Shalqar Orazalin, guilty of the murder. Ismankulovwas sentenced to 17 years imprisonment, while Igilikov and Orazalniwere sentenced to 10 and 11 years respectively. Despite continued claimsfrom Pavlyuk’s family that the killing was politically motivated, the courtdescribed the killing as an ‘ordinary crime’.Imprisoned - Main caseRamazan YESERGEPOV (Esergepov)Profession: Editor-in-chief of the weekly Alma-Ata Info Date of thearrest: 6 January 2009 Sentence: Three-year prison sentence Expiry:5 January 2012 Details of the arrest: Yesergepov was being treatedfor hypertension at the Cardiology Institute in Almaty, when armedand masked security officers entered the hospital and took him to theTaraz regional office, in southern Kazakhstan, where he was interrogatedby the Kazakh National Security Committee (KNB). According to astatement by the KNB Yesergepov was arrested because he repeatedlyignored subpoenas issued by the agency. Charges: Illegally obtainingand divulging state secrets Details of the trial: Yesergepov’s chargesstem from an article published on 21 November 2008 entitled ‘Whorules the Country - The President or the Committee for National Security(CNS)?’ which is said to deal with a tax fraud allegation. Since December2008, Alma Ata Info, has been investigated for the disclosure of twoleaked memos which were published alongside the cited article. Duringthe trial Yesergepov maintained his innocence and stated that the factsin his article were of public interest. The verdict was announced on 8August 2009 behind closed doors, without the presence of journalists.According to press reports, a former Supreme Court Judge stated thata number of norms were contravened during the trial and that, as aconsequence, Yesergepov should be retried. The sentence was based inarticles 172 and 339 of the Kazakh Criminal Code. In October 2009the verdict against Yesergepov was upheld by a regional court in Taraz.Parole: On 23 January 2010, the prison commission rejected a request forearly parole filed by Yesergepov, after serving one year of his sentence.According to his wife, in an early meeting, the commission agreed toparole him, but changed their decision under pressure ‘from above’.Health concern: On 25 June 2010, Yeserpegov announced he will go onhunger strike on 6 July, as a way of protesting for his imprisonment andfor the alleged failure of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation inEurope (OSCE) to deal with the Kazakhstan’s human rights violations. 6July marks the first half of Yesergepov’s sentence. Update: Yesepgepovhas been named as a recipient of a Human Rights Watch’s Hell-HammettGrant for 2011. The grant is awarded to writers and journalists who havebeen subjected to political persecution and are in financial need. (RAN10/09 – 13 February 2009; Update #1 – 21 August 2009)Imprisoned - investigation*Kuanbek BOTABEKOV: chief editor of the newspaper Adilet, wassentenced to one and a half years imprisonment on 19 October 2011 bythe Al-Farabi district court in Shymkent for defamation, under Article129 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan, and was also forced to pay300,000 KZT (approx. $2,000) in damages. The private complaint wasfiled by brothers Kenes and Bakitbek Nakipbekov. The charges followedthe publication of two articles entitled ‘Mr. Kenes, which team do youplay for?’ and ‘Dear valued Mr. President’, which accused the brothersof corruption. Kenes and Bakitbek Nakipbekov are the heads of theinter-regional transport office and inter-regional land inspection offices,respectively.Alpamys BEKTURGANOV: Writer and former adviser for the governorof the western Kazakhstan region, was reportedly sentenced to one yearin prison on charges of ‘libel’, on 13 August 2009. This charge is linkedto a press conference lead by Bekturganov on 15 July 2009, in whichhe reportedly criticized the then governor. Days after the conference,Bekturganov was dismissed from his job. While serving this sentence, on22 September, Bekturganov was handed down another three-year prisonsentence on charges of ‘abuse of office’ while holding the position ofdeputy head of Oblast Culture Department in 2006. The charges allegedthat Bekturganov made an illegal profit by selling his books to regionallibraries. However, there are suggestions that he is being punished for hiscritical views. The confiscation of his property was also ordered and hewas prohibited from holding official posts.Non-custodial sentence*Valery SURGANOV: reporter with the independent news websiteGuljan; was sentenced to 18 months of “restricted freedom” on 7November 2011 and fined 100,000 tenge (US$675) by a court in Almaty.Surganov was convicted of defaming Sandzhar Aliyev, a Pavlodarregion financial police officer, in an article from July 2011. In the articleSurganov accused Aliyev of promiscuity and cited a former colleague ofthe police officer as saying that he had been detained for allegedly rapinga local woman in the past but had used his official status and connectionsto avoid persecution. The terms of this “restriction” include a banon leaving Almaty without obtaining police consent, a 9p.m. curfew and 55