Mongolian appeals court upholds sentence against critical journalist

A Mongolian appeals court on Thursday upheld a verdict in the case against journalist Unurtsetseg Naran.
Unurtsetseg, editor-in-chief of the news site Zarig, was sentenced in July to four years and nine months in prison during a closed-door trial. She was initially arrested over a Facebook post in which she said it was inhumane to prolong the court hearing of an elderly individual, according to reports.
Authorities convicted her of spreading false information, tax evasion, money laundering, revealing personal secrets and illegal acquisition of state secrets. She denies any wrongdoing.
The journalist was seen being ushered into the closed-door hearing in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, on Thursday morning. Before her arrival, police secured an area where a small crowd had gathered to show support for the journalist.
Lawyers for Unurtsetseg later spoke with reporters outside the court. They said the legal process might have affected her rights.
The hearings were held in secret because of an alleged connection to state secrets. Bulgamaa Rinzaan, who is representing Unurtsetseg, said that because the hearings were closed, defense attorneys had restricted access to case files and evidence, which severely limited their ability to defend their client effectively.
Another lawyer involved in the case, Erkhembayar Purevdorj, said that not all parts of the case were related to state secrets, and therefore some parts of the case could have been held separately to allow for greater transparency.
Unurtsetseg is well known in Mongolia for her critical coverage. In one of her best-known investigations, the journalist questioned companies that had defaulted on loans to the Development Bank of Mongolia. She also uncovered sexual abuse in a Buddhist boarding school and exposed violence in the military.
She has faced previous legal threats related to her work, including 12 defamation complaints in 2019 and four in 2020, all filed by politicians mentioned in her reporting, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
Three local media advocacy groups, including the Media Council of Mongolia, the Confederation of Mongolian Journalists and the Globe International Center, issued a joint statement in her support. The statement said that holding the trial behind closed doors denied the media the right to inform the public.
Media lawyer Galbaatar Lkhagvasuren told VOA that a few of the criminal laws used to charge Unurtsetseg violate press freedom and are counterintuitive in that they punish journalists for informing the public and go against constitutional rights of press freedom.
Unurtsetseg has already spent 111 days in prison. The appeals court ruled that her sentence would include time already spent in custody.
The journalist has the right to take her appeal to the Supreme Court.
This article originated in VOA’s Mandarin Service.