Murder of Kazakh journalist sends chills through exiles in Ukraine
A small group of mourners gathered Friday for the funeral of Kazakh opposition activist and YouTuber Aidos Sadykov, who was killed in Kiev, Ukraine. Colleagues said the killing was a chilling event for journalists and exiles in Ukraine and the wider region.
A former opposition politician and trade unionist, Mr Sadykov, 55, lived in Ukraine after fleeing his native Kazakhstan with his family 10 years ago. He was granted political asylum in Ukraine and, with his wife, ran a popular YouTube channel covering events in Kazakhstan.
He was shot outside their home last month and died of his wounds earlier this week. Natalia Sadykova, his widow and a journalist, has blamed Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for her husband’s death.
“Aidos gave his life for Kazakhstan. He died a martyr’s death at the hands of murderers,” she said wrote on her Facebook pageand announced his death. “Aidos fought for his life in intensive care for 13 days, but there was no miracle. His death is on Tokayev’s conscience.”
The President of Kazakhstan has not directly responded to Ms Sadykova’s accusations. He announced Shortly after the shooting, he ordered his officials to learn details about the incident and, if necessary, offer Ukraine assistance in the investigation.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General has named two Kazakh citizens as suspects in the shooting, and announced that the case was a murder investigation. The two people escaped the country via neighboring Moldova, the prosecutor said.
One of the suspects turned himself in upon his return to Kazakhstan and was interrogated, it said. a statement of the Kazakhstan Public Prosecutor’s Office. The second man remains at large.
Mrs. Saydkova was sitting next to her husband in their car on June 18 when they drove into the courtyard of their home. In an interview, she said she saw a man holding a pistol with a silencer open fire into the car. He shot her husband in the head through the windshield, she said.
Mr Sadykov was taken to hospital and survived for two weeks in a coma before succumbing to his injuries. He is survived by his wife and three children, aged 13, 12 and 5.
While living in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, both Mr. Sadykov and Ms. Sadykova were the targets of persecution they said was politically motivated. He spent two years in prison and she faced the prospect of imprisonment when they fled.
Mr. Sadykov was an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government and had long been active in organizing strikes and protests, particularly among oil workers. His YouTube channel, called Base (pronounced Ba-zay), has more than a million subscribers and has been a source of irritation for the government, friends at the funeral said.
According to Vladimir Kozlov, a former political prisoner in Kazakhstan, many followers in Kazakhstan submitted videos of protests and police brutality, which were then posted by the channel, undermining official reporting of the events.
Refat Chubarov, the leader of Ukraine’s Crimean Tatar movement, spoke at the funeral at a Muslim community center in a suburb southwest of Kiev, suggesting that the real culprit was Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin. Crimean Tatars suffered centuries of oppression under Moscow’s rule and most were forcibly resettled in Central Asia in the 1940s.
“Aidos was murdered by those who do not want a free and independent Kazakhstan,” he said, standing next to Mr. Sadykov’s body, which lay on a wooden bier covered with a green and gold cloth. “He was murdered in our country. It could only have been done by those who want to destroy us all. I do not know who did this, but it is clear that it came from the enemy of us all, from one center, Moscow.”
The killing was a message to all Kazakhs, Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars and the wider community, he said. “Anyone who thinks this war will not affect them should think again.”
International journalist organizations have deplored the killing and called for a full investigation.
“Journalists must be free to operate without fear of reprisal, and the murder of Aidos while he was in an asylum is deeply suspicious,” Anthony Bellanger, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, said in a statement. “Those responsible must be held to account.”
