In Almaty on June 30, the trial continues in the case of a brawl involving the head of the news agency KazTAG, Aset Mataev, and Valikhan Ramazanov. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
One of the conflict participants, Islam Amiradzhanov, testified as a witness. According to his testimony, the events began on the night of March 17-18, around midnight. He and his friend Arlan Aiyimbetov were sitting in a parked Toyota Camry near a taxi stand close to the Dostyk Plaza shopping center. At that moment, two unknown men approached their car – later identified as Ramazanov and Mataev. Both, according to the witness, were intoxicated, which was previously confirmed by an examination.
According to the witness, one of the men said a phrase that made the young men realize Aiyimbetov was mistaken for a girl: 'Girl, is this a taxi?' Amiradzhanov quoted in court. After that, the men got into a taxi and left. Some time later, Amiradzhanov and Aiyimbetov were joined by their acquaintances – two girls and one young man. They got into the Toyota Camry and drove off.
At a traffic light, their car accidentally ended up next to the same taxi. According to Amiradzhanov, they only wanted to clarify the meaning of the earlier words. 'We asked them to lower the window just to ask: what was that about?' he said. First, the taxi driver opened the window, then the passengers joined the conversation. A verbal altercation ensued. After that, both cars drove off and stopped nearby.
According to the witness, the men from the taxi approached their car, demanded they get out, and pulled the door handles several times. The doors were locked. 'It was scary... we are teenagers, and here are adult men,' Amiradzhanov explained. When the men moved away from the car, the group of young people also got out. According to the witness, the rented car had been physically impacted, so the young people decided to get out 'to resolve the issue, to talk,' without waiting for possible damage to the vehicle. Thus, the conflict moved to an open area near the traffic light.
After that, the brawl began. Amiradzhanov could not say who threw the first punch. 'I don't remember exactly who was first... then it was unclear who was hitting whom,' he said. According to the witness, he saw at least two blows directed at Aiyimbetov, after which he fell to the ground.
After the brawl started, security guards and security service personnel arrived. They separated the participants and called the police. Later, all participants were taken to the police station.
According to the prosecution, on the night of March 18, 2026, KazTAG general director Aset Mataev and Valikhan Ramazanov, while intoxicated, participated in a street brawl near the Dostyk Plaza shopping center in Almaty. According to investigation and police materials, Mataev and Ramazanov provoked a verbal conflict with two young men in a parked Toyota Camry, insulted them (calling one of the men a woman), and damaged the car. The quarrel escalated into a group fight, during which Mataev and Ramazanov inflicted multiple blows with hands and feet to the victims' heads and bodies.
At the time of the incident, Aset Mataev was already under a written undertaking not to leave the city in a case involving the dissemination of false information. On March 20, the specialized investigative court of Almaty authorized his arrest for two months on charges of hooliganism (Part 2, Clause 1, Article 293 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan). Later, on March 30, the preventive measure was changed to house arrest. Notably, Mataev's lawyer Rena Kerimova publicly stated that there were no complaints against the investigation and confirmed that no torture or illegal methods were used against him in detention.
In the spring of 2025, the KazTAG agency launched an information attack against the brokerage company Freedom Finance and its founder Timur Turlov. The publication issued over 250 articles accusing the company of fraud, money laundering to offshore accounts, and creating a pyramid scheme. The articles were prompted by complaints from investor Zhanna Kaparova about losing money due to the actions of former broker employee Temirlan Bekov. However, the Department of Economic Investigations completely dropped the case against Bekov: the investigation found that the client voluntarily gave him her account passwords, confirmed transactions with SMS codes, and agreed to pay 20% of profits, grossly violating company regulations. Representatives of Freedom Finance regarded these publications as blackmail after refusing a dubious 'out-of-court settlement,' and in February 2026 won a civil lawsuit that declared KazTAG's materials false and ordered a retraction.