Duman Mukhammedkarim

Duman Almasūly Mūhammedkärim (, ; born 9 July 1978) is a Kazakh journalist. After decades of working for the Qazaqstan Radio and Television Corporation, he founded his own YouTube channel, Ne Deidi , in 2015, from which he covered significant events in Kazakhstan, including most notably the 2022 Kazakh unrest. In 2023, Mukhammedkarim was arrested and detained multiple times over a three-month period, and since June 2023, he has been detained under charges of funding and participating in extremist activities, which human rights organisations have described as "dubious" and a "gross violation" of human rights.

Early life and career Mukhammedkarim was born in Urzhar, a village in what is now the Abai Region of Kazakhstan, to Aimaz Tilepov and Kalimash Rymbekovyna. During the 1990s, he started working for Kazakhstan's state broadcaster, Qazaqstan Radio and Television Corporation, first at local stations in Semey and Astana, before working for national television channels and radio stations. He also briefly acted as a press secretary for an akim in the West Kazakhstan Region.

Independent journalism and activism In 2015, Mukhammedkarim created his own YouTube channel entitled Ne Deydi , which had 145, 000 subscribers as of February 2024. The following day, Mukhammedkarim went on hunger strike to protest his arrests and the charges against him. His father also went on strike in front of the prosecutor's office in Ile District, but was forced to stop on 6 June due to high blood pressure; Mukhammedkarim ended his own strike on 12 June. Mukhammedkarim was detained in Taldykorgan in Jetisu Region. That same month, the Minister of Information, Darkhan Kydyraly, publicly stated that Mukhammedkarim had been arrested for his political views and not due to his journalism.

In January 2024, it was announced that Mukhammedkarim's trial would start on 12 February 2024. A state-commissioned psychological and philological analysis of Mukhammedkarim's interview with Ablyazov found that Mukhammedkarim's words "promoted extremist ideas and views" and "showed signs of participation" with the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, though concluded he had also discussed the importance of peaceful protest and had not called for the forceful seizure of power. Two additional videos from April 2023 were found to show "signs of propaganda" for extremist ideology. Additional information cited by prosecutors as evidence of funding extremism stemmed from Mukhammedkarim commenting on his interview with Ablyazov with a link to donate to him.

The International Federation of Journalists called Mukhammedkarim's arrest as "contrary to freedom of expression and freedom of the press".

The Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law identified that Mukhammedkarim's rights as a journalist were guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which had been ratified by Kazakhstan, and stated that the Kazakhstani government was "grossly violating" these rights.