Newspaper Respublika may close if court rules in favor of BTA Bank’s claim – editorial staff

The claim BTA Bank filed against Kazakhstan’s opposition newspaper Respublika may lead to the closure of the newspaper, said deputy editor-in-chief Oksana Makushina.

“Our newspaper may have to close down. Taking into account the fact how quickly the court is considering BTA Bank’s claim this may happen from day to day. This week’s issue of the newspaper may happen to be the last one or the newspaper may not be issued even this week,” Makushina told a Tuesday press conference in Almaty.

As reported on August 13, JSC BTA Bank filed a lawsuit against the Respublika weekly seeking moral damages of 60 million tenge. (Current FOREX rate is 150.77/$1). Later the bank increased this amount up to 80 million tenge.

According to the bank, the journalists “formed a negative image of BTA Bank that lacked credibility in the eyes of our clients, partners and investors” through publishing their assumptions, opinions and surmises.

The Bank alleged the newspaper Respublika of encouraging the outflow of clients’ deposits from the bank in the period from March 13 till March 20 to the amount of 1.4 billion tenge.

According to Makushina, the judge is very much hurrying to close the case, as the court hearings are daily from 10 am till after 6 pm. “The judge makes no secret of the fact that he is to finish the process as soon as possible. We are being allowed no time for preparations, the meetings are held every day and all our petitions are being rejected,” she said.

The Respublika’s editorial staff believes that the closure of the newspaper is inevitable and that some governmental bodies may be behind BTA Bank’s claim.

“Using the bank either the government or the president’s administration are trying to close down our newspaper which is offering rather sharp criticism and greatly irritating those who do not want to hear the truth,” Makushina explained.

Sergei Utkin, the defense lawyer for the newspaper, said that the bank’s claim is based on “opinions but not facts.” He was in perplexity saying that in accordance with the law no one could be brought to court only for his opinion.

“There is an opinion. You may like it or not but you do not have to prove or refute it. It is just there and that is it. You may only give your arguments in response,” he explained. “It does not entail any responsibility, one cannot demand any material compensation or administrative punishment,” Utkin added.

“The judge is displaying his negative attitude towards us. We see that the decision is coming in favor BTA Bank,” he summed up.

As reported, starting February 2, 2009 SamrukKazyna National Welfare Fund gained control over BTA Bank. One by one, all managers of the banks were relieved of their duties, including Mukhtar Ablyazov, the chair of the board of directors of BTA Bank. Soon after their dismissal Ablyazov, Zhaksylyk Zharimbetov, the former first deputy chair of the bank’s managing board, and Roman Solodchenko, the chair of the management board, left Kazakhstan in fear of criminal prosecutions. They all were charged with embezzlement. Besides, Ablyazov was charged with masterminding an organized criminal group that existed in the bank, according to the investigators.

As became known in February, Kazakhstan offered Russia’s Sberbank to purchase a stake in BTA Bank. Sberbank is expected to make a decision concerning this offer in August.

The external debts of BTA Bank are valued at $13 billion. This year the bank is to repay $3 billion of its external debts. BTA Bank is currently working with the main creditors on restructuring its debts.

In 2008 BTA Bank was ranked 6th by assets among the CIS banks and 1st among the Kazakh banks according to the Interfax-1000 ranking prepared by the Interfax Center of Economic Analysis.

Interfax-Kazakhstan