Almaty Court Backs Closure Of Opposition Newspaper, Websites

ALMATY -- A court in Almaty has ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by prosecutors that demands the closure of the opposition newspaper "Respublika," along with its websites and eight of its supplements.

Respublika's editor in chief Tatyana Trubachyova says the ruling was issued on the morning of December 25.

She said her newspaper plans to appeal the decision within the required 15 days.

Under the decision, the court has classified the Algha party, the Khalyk Maydany organization, eight newspapers, and 23 news websites as "extremist."

Prosecutors have sought to ban the publication and distribution of "Respublika," the "Vzglyad" newspaper and its websites.

The also want to bring a halt to the operations of the foreign television channels K+ and Stan-TV on Kazakh territory and to shut down their websites.