Blogger disposal?

Late Sunday evening, the investigating judge of the Karabalyk District Court issued a ruling on the house arrest of local blogger Mirshat SARSENBAYEV. In Karabalyk, he has a reputation as the most scandalous investigator, who has long annoyed everyone: the police, the prosecutor's office, and the akimat. Officials and law enforcement officers are in constant conflict with him and even in court proceedings, the reasons for which are Sarsenbaev's publications on their own platforms in social networks. But this time, the blogger's opponents are experiencing triumphant emotions: they made public the suspicion brought against him for extortion on an especially large scale, that is, 15 million tenge, which threatens him with imprisonment for up to 15 years.

There is no official word on who suffered from Sarsenbaev’s actions, but in Karabalyk everyone knows: no one from the local business could have spent such a large sum on the blogger, except for the Poultry-Agro company, that is, a local poultry farm.

This long-suffering enterprise, even before it was called Poultry-Agro, was more than once the subject of our journalistic investigations, but they concerned the theft of investor funds and false projects to revive the poultry farm, known since the times of the USSR. Sarsenbaev found another topic: violations of laws by the new owner, which harm nature and the interests of the state.

In early February, he began posting a series of reports on his YouTube channel, “Mirsat Sarsenbaev’s Inconvenient Questions,” the content of which shocked his fellow countrymen. The blogger filmed a landfill site where tractors were unloading waste biomaterial, that is, defective chickens, from trailers. The worst thing was that quite a large number of the disposed birds were… alive! Sarsenbaev captured on his phone how the half-plucked birds were shivering in the cold and, having fallen on their sides, were kicking their paws. And eagles were flying in the sky, already accustomed to easy prey, and somewhere nearby, dogs were running, their competitors. What a disposal!..

Sarsenbaev also filmed the garbage being taken out of the poultry farm, which he suspects is carelessly stored not only on land designated for the landfill, but also anywhere.

The blogger managed to get an inspection of the poultry farm and to hold those responsible for various violations, including environmental and sanitary standards, accountable. According to the Karabalyk District Territorial Inspectorate of the Committee for Veterinary Control and Supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, an unscheduled inspection of Poultry-Agro was conducted from February 17 to 19. For failure to comply with sanitary and veterinary rules, the company was fined 50 MCI. For violating regulatory legal acts on combating epizootics, which, fortunately, did not lead to the spread of the epizootic, Poultry-Agro was fined 25 MCI. In monetary terms, the total amount of fines was almost 295 thousand tenge.

And immediately after the administrative penalties were imposed on blogger Sarsenbaev, the allegedly fined enterprise brought in 15 million. True, not on a silver platter, but in a package thrown over the fence at his house. Frankly, it is hard to imagine a stranger turn of events. If you were caught not only by a rural blogger, but also by a government agency, why pay?

According to our information, the injured party claims: allegedly so that... blogger Sarsenbaev would remove the video materials he posted from the Internet. It makes you want to ask: what's the point? What's the benefit and advantage for Poultry-Agro?

No clearer explanation than revenge, blind and merciless, comes to mind. Considering that Sarsenbayev flatly refuses to admit his guilt, this version seems quite logical.

From the court documents available to us it follows that the blogger allegedly extorted money from the poultry farm management for a week and a half - from February 10 to 19. Therefore, his actions are classified under Part 4 of Article 194 of the Criminal Code: extortion under the threat of disseminating information that defames the victim, the disclosure of which may cause significant harm to the victim, committed on an especially large scale. And here, in this very place, it is again unclear what kind of threats we are talking about, since they have already been implemented, that is, information unpleasant for Poultry-Agro has been disseminated...

The prosecutor's office and the injured party insisted on Sarsenbaev's detention. His defense countered: there are no grounds for applying such a preventive measure, not even "at all." The blogger did not hide from the investigation and did not even receive subpoenas, did not attempt to evade, and cannot put pressure on the injured party... In general, the court decided that the mere fact of the gravity of the charges brought against him was not enough to keep Sarsenbaev behind bars during the investigation, and therefore sentenced him to house arrest until April 20.

Meanwhile, as a result of his detention and placement in the temporary detention facility, the blogger experienced such a strong shock that he developed type 2 diabetes. This diagnosis was made by an ambulance doctor who was called to the police station where Sarsenbaev was being held. And this also became known to everyone in Karabalyk very soon. You can’t hide an awl in a sack for long in a village…

While preparing this material, we had to face the fact that no one wants to talk openly about this topic. The blogger's lawyer, Elmira SANKAYEVA, refers to the fact that she has not yet been able to familiarize herself with the entire volume of documents on the case. The businessmen with whom we spoke on the phone laugh out loud, discussing the exorbitant amount of the "fee". Local residents are divided: some sympathize with the blogger, while others think that he has jumped too far.

It seems that the majority of Karabalyk residents have long had a grudge against Sarsenbaev, because for the sake of a catchphrase he did not spare anyone, in fact.

Nevertheless, it is already clear: this high-profile case (especially against the backdrop of recent revelations of major Kazakh top bloggers in connection with their incomprehensible income for the tax authorities) will bring new surprises. And then it will become clear what we are talking about: ordinary crime or a crudely planned provocation.

Stas KISELYOV, photo from social networks and screenshot of Mirshat SARSENBAYEV's video, Almaty