Ramazan Yesergepov is a prominent investigative journalist who founded the independent Alma-Ata Info newspaper in 2005. It did not take long for Ramazan’s reporting to catch the attention of the government. Within a year, Alma-Ata Info was charged with violating the law on mass media for allegedly changing its thematic focus and fined.
In November 2008, Ramazan received two documents from an anonymous source, later to be revealed as the chief of the regional National Security Committee. Ramazan used this information to publish a piece entitled “Who Rules the Country: President or National Security Committee?” asserting that a regional official had sought to influence a local prosecutor and judge in a criminal tax evasion case involving a local distillery.
Two months later Kazakh security service agents seized Ramazan from a hospital bed where he was being treated for hypertension. He was charged with the collection and publication of state secrets in the Alma-Ata Info. While entering his trial on August 8, 2009, which was closed to outside observers, Ramazan offered hope to supporters and family members, shouting “We shall overcome corruption!” At the conclusion of the trial he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and an additional two years suspension from journalism. The Alma-Ata Info has since been shut down by Kazakh authorities, a fate that has been suffered by numerous other media outlets in the country.
Eurasianet published op-eds authored by Freedom Now calling on OSCE member states to raise the case of Yesergepov and other political prisoners in Central Asia.
On January 6, 2012, Kazakhstan released Ramazan after the completion of his prison sentence. He has since left the country and has settled in Europe. In 2017, he returned to Kazakhstan to speak about press freedom and was attacked by unknown assailants. He relocated to Europe again after the attack, but undeterred returned again in Kazakhstan in 2019 to continue his advocacy for greater media freedom.