Criminals brought to justice.

This is an everyday tagline journalists write about when covering common-day societal happenings – and sometimes it’s a tagline that describes the injustice that swarms their own profession – particularly in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, today.

Killing a journalist is killing a civil servant. Killing a journalist not only kills the voice of a community, but also kills the news, the ambitious and trusted medium through which we learn about the news and the vehicle through which we learn about what goes on in society.

On October 11th, 3 men were sentenced for the murder of independent Kyrgyz opposition journalist Gennady Pavlyuk, in Kazakhstan. Pavlyuk, 51, died on December 22nd 2009 after being thrown – hands and feet bound – from the 6th floor of a building in the “Apple” city of Almaty. And 2 years later, an answer to the puzzle has finally been instituted.

The reason Pavlyuk went to Kazakhstan was to meet with representatives regarding a fund that was going to give him a mass media grant worth 80,000 Euros. And before arriving in Almaty, Pavlyuk met with former Kyergyz opposition figure Omurbek Tekebaev, wherein they discussed potential cooperation with Tekebaev’s “Ata-Meken” (“Fatherland”) party.

Journalist Pavlyuk was ethnic Russian and known by Kyrgyzstanis via his pseudonym, “Rustam Ibragimbek”. He founded the “White Steamer” newspaper and website and wrote for “Vecherny Bishkek” newspaper and Russian weekly “Argumenty i Fakty“.

For neweurasia’s background look into the murder case of this missed and memorable media man, check out: “Revisiting the 2009 death of a Kyrgyz journalist.”

On June 6th, an ex-Kyrgyz national security service agent and 2 Kazakh students were brought to court and on October 11th, a specialized inter-district criminal court in Almaty found the 3 men guilty. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) says the 3-some have been jailed for up to 17 years for the murder they committed, which is seen in the eyes of Kyrgyz authorities as an “ordinary crime”.

About the October 11th court haring, Central Asia Online said:

“Ex-security service officer Aldayar Ismankulov, a Kyrgyz citizen, received 17 years in jail, while Kazakh citizens Almas Igilikov and Shalqar Orazalin were sentenced to 10 and 11 years, respectively. The court verdict described the murder as an ordinary crime, although many suspect Pavlyuk was killed for his journalistic activities.”

24 News Agency informs about the charges:

“A former employee of Kyrgyzstan’s State National Security Committee Aldayar Ismankulov was found guilty of organizing premeditated murder, kidnapping of the journalist in a preliminary conspiracy and document forgery. The court sentenced him to 17 years in the colony of high security and ordered to pay a fine of 756 thousand tenges (over $ 5.100 thousand).”

“Two citizens of Kazakhstan Shalkar Orazalin and Almaz Igilikov were found guilty of kidnapping in a preliminary conspiracy and sentenced to 11 and 10 years in a colony of general regime respectively. In addition, Orazalin must pay a fine of 382 thousand tenge (about $ 2. 600 thousand), Igilikov – amounting to 312 thousand tenges (over $ 2.100 thousand). The court took into account at the sentencing that Orazalin has a mitigating circumstance – tuberculosis.”

And that’s that for the fate of the victimizers.

About the death of Pavlyuk, in mid-June 2011, neweurasia said:

“Let’s hope that 2011 will shine a new light on press freedom in Kyrgyzstan, and thus as Pavlyuk’s murder trial proceeds, may nothing short of ultimate justice prevail for this honorable journalist and his family.”

neweurasia is relieved that the Kyrgyz justice system has caught and officially sentenced Pavlyuk’s murderers and that justice has been brought to the journalist’s grieving family.