ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A court in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, has prolonged pretrial arrest for journalist Guzyal Baidalinova.
Baidalinova's lawyer, Inessa Kisilyova, told RFE/RL that the Almaly district court ruled on February 16 that her client must be kept in detention until at least March 23.
Baidalinova, the owner and editor of the Nakanune.kz online news portal, was detained on December 23 after one of Kazakhstan's largest banks, Kazkommertzbank, filed a lawsuit against her, accusing her of "organization and publishing false data."
Baidalinova was initially sent to two months' pretrial detention on December 26.
Another journalist of Nakanune.kz, Yulia Kozlova, is on trial on drugs-related charges.
Both Baidalinova and Kozlova reject the charges, calling them politically motivated.