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Head of Kazakhstan Football Federation Under Investigation by UEFA

UEFA is investigating Adilet Barmenkulov, the president of the Football Federation of Kazakhstan. In 2022, the businessman succeeded Adilbek Jaxybekov - who had been at the helm of football in Kazakhstan since 2018. "Adilet Barmenkulov is being investigated for knowing about match-fixing and doing nothing about it, suggesting that he had a vested interest in the matches or in favors owed to him by other officials," Inside The Games reported. Barmenkulov posted a video statement on social media confirming that match-fixing had occurred in the past, but denying that the problem persists. Many prominent figures from the world of soccer have complained, stating that since he knew about it, Barmenkulov is responsible, whether through his actions or inaction. "I agree that it is difficult to change the structure of a soccer club when past victories were achieved through questionable means," Barmenkulov said in the video message. He argued, however, that leaders must act systemically rather than locally, and to bring order to soccer in the country it is necessary to act together, not on an ad hoc basis. Clubs must stop trying to bribe referees, he said, and "from now on, I will make corruption in soccer known and public". Inside The Games characterized Barmenkulov's statement as "clearly indicating not only his awareness but also his inaction on the issue of foul play". Earlier, Barmenkulov had been criticized by Kazakhs for hiring the Russian, Stanislav Cherchesov, as head coach of Kazakhstan’s national soccer team. Sources claim that Cherchesov, the former head coach of the Russian national team, will receive a salary of $1.2 million a year.

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Law Firm That Helped Johnny Depp Has Another Big Client: Kazakhstan

Two American attorneys who represented actor Johnny Depp in his libel case against former wife Amber Heard have visited Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court and spoken to Kazakh university students this week. Attorneys Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew work for Brown Rudnick, an international law firm that has a client in Kazakhstan: the Ministry of Justice. The firm, whose primary address is in Boston, has been engaged to help the Kazakh ministry in legal processes in Britain and the United States, according to a February filing with the U.S. Department of Justice. In recent years, Kazakh authorities have pursued an international campaign to recover assets that they say were stolen and moved abroad. Vasquez and Chew became familiar faces for many people during the Depp vs. Heard 2022 trial, which was livestreamed and set off a fresh round of debate about celebrity culture and the MeToo movement. A jury awarded $15 million to Depp, who had accused Heard of lying when she said he had abused her, though it also awarded $2 million to Heard in a separate decision. Later, Depp agreed to receive $1 million and pledged it to charity. Vasquez in particular became something of a celebrity herself during and after the trial. She has worked as a legal analyst for NBC News and was elevated to partner at Brown Rudnick, which had helped Depp. Chew joined the firm as a partner in 2018. Vasquez “talked about the importance of personal brand in the court of law and in the court of public opinion” in comments at the International School of Journalism of Maqsut Narikbayev University in Astana, the Kazakh capital, the school said on Wednesday. The school, which opened last year after a presidential instruction, said the lawyer offered tips about embracing identity, creating value, how to “grow” and time management. As the attorney spoke, images appeared on the screen behind her. One showed Depp in his “Pirates of the Caribbean” garb. Vasquez and Chew also visited the Constitutional Court in Astana and discussed gender equality and strengthening women's rights in the judiciary, Tengri News reported, citing the court’s press service.

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Mixed Results for Kazakhstan in Media Freedom Rankings

Analysts at Ranking.kz have provided an overview of press freedom in Kazakhstan and alleged violations against journalists. According to the International Foundation for the Protection of Freedom of Expression, Әdil sөz, there was a 20.1% decrease in incidents of violations against correspondents last year, with 434 incidents in 2023 and 141 from January to May this year. Additionally, reports of pre-trial claims or lawsuits against individual journalists or editorial offices declined by 5% in 2023. Despite this, seven court decisions led to various sentences for journalists at the end of 2023. The most common violation was obstruction of legitimate professional activities, with 51 cases, including six violent ones, primarily involving police and state employees. Threats to journalists and editorial offices were also significant, with 44 incidents reported. Nonviolent attempts to coerce journalists were noted to have decreased slightly. However, despite fewer reported violations, according to Reporters Without Borders, censorship issues have worsened. Kazakhstan's press freedom ranking fell from 134th to 142nd in 2024, with a score of 41.11 out of 100. In contrast, Kyrgyzstan ranks highest in Central Asia at 120th, while Turkmenistan remains one of the worst globally in 175th place.

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Case Opened Against Subsidiary of Russia’s Lukoil in Uzbekistan

The Committee for the Development of Competition and Consumer Protection of Uzbekistan has initiated a case against Lukoil Overseas Supply and Trading Ltd, a subsidiary of Russia's Lukoil, the Committee's press service has reported. The Committee's staff state that they identified signs of the manipulation of the price of technical sulfur by Lukoil in their selling of products through exchange trading. As a result, the price of technical sulfur rose between 10 to 50%, meaning the company violated the law "on competition." Additional information will be made available once the Committee reaches a decision on how it will proceed. Lukoil Overseas Supply and Trading Ltd was established in April 2010 as part of a marketing campaign for the sale of joint products during the implementation of production sharing agreements in respect to several gas fields. It entered the exchange-trade market for technical sulfur in Uzbekistan in 2015. Today, the company and Uzbekneftegaz dominate the technical sulfur market.

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Taking the Necessary Steps to Curb Child Abuse in Kazakhstan

In Almaty, a young woman threw herself off a Ferris wheel, falling to her death. Before committing suicide, she had strangled her five-year-old daughter. The number of children in Kazakhstan has soared over the past decade, but so have the number of crimes committed against minors. When Mom and Dad are the murderers In 2023, twenty-five children were murdered in Kazakhstan, seven of them by their relatives according to the country’s children's ombudsman, Dinara Zakiyeva. This year, Kazakhstanis were shocked by numerous horrifying cases of child abuse. According to relatives and neighbors, the family of the woman who strangled her daughter lived in the Ile District of Almaty Region and were financially secure and successful. The regional commissioner for children's rights, Aigul Yesimbekova, explained that the woman had confesses her crime to her sister before committing suicide. “The child had Down's syndrome. The mother was most likely in an internal crisis and despair when she decided to do this,"Yesimbekova explained. "She went to her sister and told her that she was going to kill herself. When her sister tried to calm her down, she went to the park (the Central Park of Culture and Leisure in Almaty). Her husband is an IT specialist, and the financial component [of her life] was fine. She was not registered with psychiatrists, her husband makes money, and everything seemed fine, but the child was sick. Probably, her soul was in such a state of crisis; it is hard when a child is sick. Maybe she murdered the child in a rush of emotion, and then, unable to cope with the guilt, she took the step she did.” According to Zakiyeva, such families are in critical need of psychological support, and child protective services should supervise them. However, the situation with psychologists and child social workers in Kazakhstan is poor. At the end of June, a court in the Turkestan Region convicted a mother of killing her two children. Their bodies were found in a rented apartment in February 2024 in the city of Turkistan. The mother was sentenced to 15 years in prison. After killing her children, the woman called her friend and told her what she'd done. Even against the backdrop of Kazakhstan’s high birth rates, the Turkestan Region - as is the entire south of the country - is an outlier. The percentage of people under the age of 18 in Kazakhstan stands at 34.1%, whereas in the Turkestan Region, this figure is 43.3%, followed by the Mangystau Region at 41.9%, and the federal city of Shymkent at 40.6%. Experts say that it is in the regions with the highest birth rates that the highest rates of violence against children are recorded. In September of last year, a pedophile raped and brutally murdered a five-year-old girl who lived next to him in the village of Zhibek Zholy in the Turkestan Region. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and chemical castration. News of the murder almost sparked a riot and deadly reprisals against the rapist;...

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Kyrgyz Supreme Court Upholds Sentence of Activist Zarina Torokulova

Considering the appeal of convicted activist Zarina Torokulova, the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan upheld the sentence passed down on her by lower courts, lawyer Akmat Alagushev has reported. According to Alagushev, the charges against the defendant were not proven at the investigation or in court; despite this, the court found her guilty. On January 16, the Pervomaisky District Court of Bishkek found the activist guilty of violating Part 3 of Article 278 of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, which addresses "Calls for active disobedience to the lawful demands of authorities, mass disorder, and incitement to violence against citizens." Earlier, the prosecution noted that the activist shared two messages from the Facebook account "Umai Aruu." One was "Japarov Mafia," and the other was "Organizing an online rally," a repost of a video by journalist, Olzhobai Shakir, who opposed the transfer of four boarding houses on Issyk-Kul to Uzbekistan, and urged citizens to come out for a rally. He was detained on August 23, 2023, by officers of the State Committee for National Security, accused of calling for active disobedience to law enforcement officials, mass disorder, and attempted seizure of power. Torokulova was sentenced to five years' imprisonment with three years' probationary supervision.