Kazakh Journalist Accuses Authorities Of Involvement In Stabbing

A Kazakh journalist and civic activist has accused authorities of involvement in his stabbing as he was traveling by train to meet European officials to discuss media freedoms in the Central Asian state.

Ramazan Yesergepov made the comments in Almaty, the country’s economic hub and largest city, where he was receiving medical treatment after being transferred on May 16 from a hospital in the southern city of Shu.

Yesergepov, the former editor in chief of the independent newspaper Alma-Ata Info, says he was attacked by two men and stabbed in the stomach on May 14 as he was traveling by train from Almaty to the capital, Astana.

He has since undergone an operation, and his surgeon says his condition is now satisfactory.

Speaking to reporters outside the Almaty hospital where he was being treated, Yesergepov claimed that "authorities are behind" his stabbing.

Yesergepov, 61, was released from prison in 2012 after serving a three-year sentence for his conviction on charges of disclosing state secrets. He now runs nongovernmental organization called Journalists In Trouble and is fighting for his formal rehabilitation from the conviction.

Interior Ministry spokesman Almas Sadubaev told RFE/RL on May 15 that Yesergepov received three stab wounds in the incident, and that the authorities had launched a probe in the matter.