A prominent Kazakh journalist says he could not attend a high-profile trial in Kazakhstan because authorities summoned him regarding an old court ruling.
Lukpan Akhmedyarov, a reporter for the Uralskaya nedelya newspaper told RFE/RL that he had been summoned to a court in the western city of Oral on October 12.
Akhmedyarov said the summons related to a 2012 fine he was ordered to pay to a former regional official in a libel case.
He claimed the authorities raised the issue now as he planned to travel to the western city of Atyrau, where two activists who protested in April against government plans to privatize agricultural lands went on trial on October 12.
Akhmedyarov survived an assassination attempt in April 2012, when he was stabbed and shot with an air pistol. Five men have been jailed for organizing and carrying out the attack.
