Journalist Lukpan Akhmedyarov Reports New Wave of Pressure

cover Photo: Adilsoz.kz

A fake Instagram account mimicking the independent media project “Just Journalism” appeared shortly after the original profile was deleted. Its founder, Lukpan Akhmedyarov, received a sudden — and then canceled — summons from police, Orda.kz reports.

On July 8, Akhmedyarov announced that the official Instagram page for “Just Journalism" had been removed without warning.

Within minutes, a lookalike profile appeared online under the handle justjournalism.official, using the same logo and republishing some of the original content. A similar clone account was also created in Akhmedyarov’s name.

“This is not our account. Ours was deleted. And the attackers created a copy and are pretending to be us,” the journalist wrote.

The incident coincided with an unusual development: Akhmedyarov received a police summons for questioning. However, ten minutes before the scheduled meeting, the investigator called to cancel.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if these are all links in the same chain,” he said.

Previously, a criminal case was opened against Akhmedyarov after an Oral resident filed a complaint against him.

According to Akhmedyarov, the woman later revealed police had pressured her into doing so. Akhmedyarov provided audio recordings to support said claims.

He believes the recent pressure stems from his reporting on ethnic Kazakhs participating in the war on the side of Russia and the deaths of recruited natives of Kazakhstan.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov

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