- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Dec 21, 2020
- Event Description
A Kazakh activist has been handed a parole-like sentence for his links to a banned political movement.
A court in the northwestern city of Aqtobe on December 21 sentenced Alibek Moldin to one year of "freedom limitation" after finding him guilty of being a leader of the banned Koshe (Street) party associated with the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement.
Moldin was detained and placed under house arrest on November 10. His sentence means that he has to report to police on a regular basis, cannot leave Aqtobe, or change his address without police permission until December 21, 2021.
The 37-year-old activist has maintained his innocence and said at the trial that the case against him is politically motivated.
"I am being persecuted by the dictatorial regime.... I have been a political activist since 2016 and since that time I, my parents, and my brothers have been under pressure. There were numerous attempts by the local authorities to force me to change my political views. Several administrative and criminal cases have been launched against me. I was ordered to pay fines and forced out of my job. There are at least 150 activists in Kazakhstan who, like me, have been under pressure because of their political views," Moldin said.
Moldin's lawyer, Adil Tulkibaev, told RFE/RL that the court decision will be appealed.
DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government. Kazakh authorities labeled the DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.
Several activists have been sentenced to various prison terms and limitations in Kazakhstan in recent months for involvement in the DVK's activities, including taking part in DVK-organized unsanctioned rallies.
Human rights groups have said Kazakhstan’s law on public gatherings contradicts international standards as it requires preliminary permission from authorities to hold rallies and envisions prosecution for organizing and participating in unsanctioned rallies, even though the nation’s constitution guarantees its citizens the right of free assembly.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 8, 2021
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Dec 22, 2020
- Event Description
An activist in Kazakhstan's southern region of Turkistan has been handed a parole-like sentence for his links with a banned political movement.
The Keles district court on December 22 sentenced Marat Duisembiev to 3 1/2 years of "freedom limitation" after finding him guilty of involvement in the activities of the banned opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK).
The trial was held online due to coronavirus restrictions. Duisembiev participated in the process via a video link from a detention center in the regional capital, Shymkent.
The 44-year-old activist was arrested and charged in August after he openly called for people to take part in an unsanctioned rally organized by the DVK.
Human rights organizations in Kazakhstan recognized him as a political prisoner last month.
Duisenbiev's sentence was handed down two days after another activist, Alibek Moldin, was sentenced to one year of "freedom limitation" for being associated with the DVK-linked unregistered Koshe (Street) Party, also banned in Kazakhstan as an extremist organization.
DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and outspoken critic of the Kazakh government. Kazakh authorities labeled DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.
Several activists have been sentenced to various prison terms and limitations in Kazakhstan in recent months for involvement in the DVK's activities, including taking part in the DVK-organized unsanctioned rallies.
Opponents of the Kazakh government have said that the crackdown on the DVK's supporters has intensified ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for January 10.
Human rights groups have said Kazakhstan’s law on public gatherings contradicts international standards as it requires preliminary permission from authorities to hold rallies and envisions prosecution for organizing and participating in unsanctioned rallies even though the nation’s constitution guarantees its citizens the right of free assembly.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Freedom of movement, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 8, 2021
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Dec 21, 2020
- Event Description
Authorities in the northwestern Kazakh city of Aqtobe have forcibly placed a wheelchair-bound activist in a psychiatric clinic after he allegedly tore down a poster of the ruling Nur Otan party.
Dana Zhanai, the chairwoman of the Qaharman human rights center, said on December 22 that activist Asanali Suyubaev had been taken to a psychiatric clinic a day earlier, a move she says is likely part of a campaign by the ruling party to sideline activists ahead of January 10 parliamentary elections.
The clinic's deputy chief physician, Esenaman Nysanov, confirmed to RFE/RL that Suyubaev had been brought to the facility by medical personnel and police.
"The patient has mental changes. But he does not accept it. He behaved in a strange way, namely, while outside, he was tearing election posters, which can be defined in a medical term as addictive behavior," Nysanov said, adding that Suyubaev had been under "psychiatric control" since 2012.
Aqtobe police refused to comment on Suyubaev’s situation.
Zhanai told RFE/RL that Suyubaev was forcibly placed in a psychiatric clinic for 20 days in April after he distributed leaflets for the unregistered and banned Koshe (Street) party.
"The authorities isolated him intentionally right before the [January 10] parliamentary elections. Activists have started a campaign to prove that the ruling Nur Otan party's ratings are fictitious and that votes will be stolen during the poll. Because of that, many activists across Kazakhstan are being persecuted now. Many are under house arrest, in detention centers, and in this case, they put Suyubaev in a psychiatric clinic," Zhanai said.
Rights activists in Kazakhstan have criticized authorities for using a Soviet-era method of stifling dissent by placing opponents in psychiatric clinics..
Earlier in November, another government critic, journalist Aigul Otepova, was placed in a psychiatric clinic for 18 days. She was released on December 11 and remains under house arrest over posting an article on Facebook criticizing official efforts to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
Investigators have charged her with having links with banned opposition movement Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, which Otepova denies.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 8, 2021
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Nov 19, 2020
- Event Description
A Kazakh court has upheld a decision to place a journalist and blogger accused of being involved in the activities of a banned organization in a psychiatric clinic.
The Nur-Sultan court of appeals announced its decision on November 19, meaning that Aigul Otepova will now be transferred from house arrest to a psychiatric clinic as ruled by a court last week. The initial ruling said Otepova must be placed in a psychiatric clinic for one month to check her mental sanity.
The 50-year-old journalist was put under house arrest on September 17 after she posted criticism on Facebook of the authorities' efforts to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
Earlier this week, her pretrial house arrest was extended until December 27.
Authorities have accused her of supporting the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) opposition movement, which has been labeled as an extremist group and banned in the country.
Otepova denies any connection with DVK, saying that she is an independent journalist and blogger who expresses her own views.
Otepova's daughter told RFE/RL that by placing her mother in a psychiatric clinic, the authorities were trying to silence her ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for January 10.
Amnesty International said in a statement on November 18 that Otepova was "a prisoner of conscience who is being prosecuted solely for the peaceful expression of her views." The rights group also demanded her immediate release.
"This case is alarmingly reminiscent of the way psychiatry was used in the 1960s and 1970s in the U.S.S.R. to imprison dissidents. The legacy of Soviet psychiatry continues to be felt across the region, and Amnesty International has intervened in a number of instances in Eastern Europe and Central Asia where people who criticize the regime or denounce injustice continue to be arbitrarily subjected to psychiatric diagnosis, forced hospitalization and involuntary treatment in psychiatric hospitals," the statement said.
Human rights groups have criticized the Kazakh government for years for persecuting independent and opposition journalists.
In 2018, a court in the southern city of Shymkent placed journalist and blogger Ardaq Ashim in a psychiatric clinic after she criticized the government in her articles.
After her release, Ashim left for Ukraine, where she currently resides.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment, Vilification
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Oct 24, 2020
- Event Description
On October 24, Kazakh police officers assaulted Toiken, correspondent for Radio Azattyq, the Kazakh service of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, while she was reporting on a peaceful rally in Nur-Sultan, the capital, according to the journalist, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app, and news reports.
“Kazakh authorities must immediately investigate the assault on journalist Saniya Toiken and should hold those responsible to account,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Toiken has been subject to many attacks for her work while doing an important job for the public. Law enforcement should be protecting her and other journalists, not attacking and harassing them.”
Toiken was covering a peaceful rally in support of political prisoners in Nur-Sultan where activists were also selling hand-made items to raise funds for prisoners’ families, according to news reports. Law enforcement officers arrived at the scene, announced that the rally was unsanctioned, and detained some participants, according to the reports. In a video interview with Current Time, a TV network affiliated with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Toiken said she was filming the event on her mobile phone when an officer pushed her to the ground, took her phone, and dragged her toward a police mini bus. She said that after she told the police officers she was a journalist, they released her.
After the assault, Toiken went to a hospital in Nur-Sultan, where doctors documented multiple injuries and bruises on her legs and arms, according to the medical report, a photo of which was posted on Facebook by Nazira Darimbet, the acting director of the Federation of Equal Journalists of Kazakhstan. Toiken told CPJ she filed a complaint against the police officers who attacked her.
In March 2019, police arrested Toiken after the journalist interviewed participants at a rally for better job opportunities in the southwestern city of Zhanaozen, as CPJ documented at the time. The journalist was held in detention overnight, found guilty of refusing to follow police orders, and fined 50,500 tenges (US$134). Toiken denied the charges, claiming that they were politically motivated and aimed at preventing her from reporting, CPJ documented.
CPJ emailed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan for comment, but did not receive a response.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Media Worker, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 1, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Sep 18, 2020
- Event Description
Jailed Kazakh civil rights activist Sanavar Zakirova has been placed in solitary confinement for allegedly attacking three cellmates, which her daughter called part of a politically motivated campaign against her.
Malika Zakirova told RFE/RL on September 18 that her mother, who is being held in a detention center in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, was defending herself from an attack by the three inmates, which lead to her being placed in solitary confinement.
Officials at the detention center told RFE/RL that Zakirova was transferred to solitary confinement for five days "for attacking three inmates."
Zakirova's lawyer, Zhanar Balghabaeva, told RFE/RL on September 18 that her client had complained since mid-August that the detention center's administration was using other inmates to pressure her and officially asked for a transfer to another penitentiary as her life was in danger.
Zakirova, who is well known for her political and civil-rights activities, was sentenced to one year in prison in mid-July after the Medeu district court in Almaty found her guilty of assaulting the daughter of a woman who had hurled vulgarities at a rally in March.
Zakirova has insisted that all of the accusations against her are groundless and politically motivated.
She was an initiator of and leading participant in rallies in Almaty and Nur-Sultan, the capital, last year by residents of Kazakhstan's different regions, demanding action on what they called "wrong court decisions" in various cases.
In March 2019, Almaty city authorities denied Zakirova permission to hold a congress to establish a new political party, Our Right.
In November 2019, Zakirova and two other activists were found guilty by a court in Almaty of distributing false information about the ruling Nur-Otan party over the Internet.
They were ordered to pay the equivalent of $15,000 to the party. Zakirova and her supporters said then that the case was politically motivated.
Days later Zakirova and three other female activists mocked Nur-Otan, staging a public action -- asking worshipers outside a mosque in Nur-Sultan for money to help pay a fine to the ruling party.
Police detained the women then and fined them the equivalent of $32 each for causing a public nuisance.
Last week, Kazakhstan’s human rights organizations recognized Zakirova a political prisoner.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Judicial Harassment, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Right to health, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 25, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Sep 14, 2020
- Event Description
A well-known Kazakh civil rights activist, Erbol Eskhozhin, has been fined for publicly calling police officers "Nazarbaev's puppies."
Nursultan Nazarbaev is Kazakhstan’s former president who ruled the Central Asian nation for almost 30 years before he resigned in March 2019. He continues to control the country as the leader of the ruling Nur-Otan party and the lifetime chairman of the powerful Security Council.
A court in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, on September 14 found Eskhozhin guilty of insulting police and fined him $530, his lawyer Olga Enns told RFE/RL.
Eskhozhin called the police "Nazarbaev's puppies" when law enforcement officers were dispersing demonstrators in Nur-Sultan, the capital, during protests early this year.
Eskhozhin said he will not pay the fine, adding that the court's decision will be appealed and that the case against him is politically motivated.
"I can't pay the fine, even if they jail me.... The ruling indicates that the authorities are scared of the increasing number of civil rights activists in the country. People do not have as much fear now," Eskhozhin said.
Since last year, the 43-year-old activist has been sentenced six times to several days in jail for taking part in unsanctioned rallies and, in all, has spent 85 days in jail.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 17, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Sep 15, 2020
- Event Description
A Kazakh court has upheld the conviction and sentencing of an activist found guilty of spreading “false information” about the coronavirus.
The Almaty city court on September 15 upheld a decision by a lower court to sentence Alnur Ilyashev to three years of restricted freedom, a parolelike limitation, and ban him from social or political activism for five years.
Ilyashev was detained on April 17 after he wrote on Facebook that authorities in Kazakhstan, including those in the ruling Nur Otan party, have been corrupt and incompetent in their response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The 43-year-old activist spent more than two months in custody before being released after the initial court verdict was handed down in June.
Amnesty International slammed the sentence as “absurd” and as a sign that the government is not tolerating criticism.
The Clooney Foundation for Justice is disappointed that the Almaty City Court has upheld the conviction of Alnur Ilyashev for criticizing the ruling Nur Otan party on Facebook. As CFJ made clear in the amicus brief it filed with the appeal court, Mr. Ilyashev’s trial, which was conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was unfair, and his conviction violated his right to freedom of expression. CFJ hopes this unjust result will be reversed upon further review.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Freedom of expression Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Kazakhstan: pro-democracy defender arrested over false charges faces long-term imprisonment, his houses raided
- Date added
- Sep 17, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Aug 26, 2020
- Event Description
A Kazakh activist has been sentenced to 10 days of administrative detention for taking part in an unsanctioned rally commemorating prominent civil right campaigner Dulat Aghadil, who died in custody in February.
Aitbai Aliev’s family said that the activist was detained by police in the southern province of Qyzylorda on August 26 and sentenced about 30 minutes later by a court in another province.
"They detained my father at around 5:35 p.m…Half-an-hour later, at 6:00 p.m., a district court in Aqmola Province held a trial via a video link," his son told RFE/RL.
Aliev was sentenced on August 26 after "pleading guilty," a document from an Aqmola court reads.
In July, Aliev was found guilty of "involvement in the activities of a banned extremist group" and was sentenced to restricted freedom -- a form of non-custodial sentence -- for six months.
That sentencing came after Aliev expressed support for the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan movement led by fugitive opposition politician Mukhtar Ablyazov.
On August 8, Aliev joined dozens of other Kazakh activists in Aghadil’s home village of Talapker in Aqmola Province.
They walked from Aghadil’s family home to the village cemetery where he was buried to commemorate the civil rights campaigner.
Aghadil, 43, died in mysterious circumstances while being held in pretrial detention in the capital, Nur-Sultan, in late February, just one day after being arrested for failing to comply with a court order to report to local police.
Authorities said Aghadil died from a heart attack, but his family and fellow rights defenders say he had no history of heart issues.
Rallies were held in Nur-Sultan and other cities in February and March to demand a thorough investigation into his death.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 31, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Aug 27, 2020
- Event Description
Dozens of Kazakh activists were given short jail sentences or fines for attending a commemoration of prominent civil rights campaigner Dulat Aghadil, who died in custody in February.
At least seven people were found guilty for attending an unsanctioned rally and sentenced to up to 15 days in detention this week, relatives and rights defenders said.
Among those jailed were activists Alma Nurysheva and Alsan Hasanonov, who were sentenced by a court in Aqmala Province on August 27. Their trials took place via a video link.
The same court ordered several other activists to pay fines ranging between $200 and $400.
Kazakh human rights defenders say “dozens” of activists from Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Aqtau, Oskemen, and Semei cities have gone on trial in recent days.
At least 100 people attended the commemoration on August 8 in Aghadil’s home village of Talapker in the Aqmola Province.
They walked from Aghadil’s family home to the village cemetery where he was buried to commemorate the civil rights campaigner.
Aghadil, 43, died under mysterious circumstances while being held in pretrial detention in the capital, Nur-Sultan, in late February, just one day after being arrested for failing to comply with a court order to report to local police.
Authorities said Aghadil died from a heart attack, but his family and fellow rights defenders say he had no history of heart issues.
Rallies were held in Nur-Sultan and other cities in February and March to demand a thorough investigation into his death.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 31, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Jun 26, 2020
- Event Description
Police have detained two men who staged separate pickets outside the Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan's capital, Nur-Sultan, demanding the release of relatives being held in custody in China's northwestern Xinjiang region.
Aqiqat Qaliolla and Zhenis Zarqyn came to an area next to the embassy on June 26 with their hands and legs chained and posters on their bodies with portraits of family members. Zarqyn chained himself to a metal fence near the embassy.
Both said their relatives are being held in so-called "reeducation camps" in Xinjiang and demanded that Chinese authorities release them.
Special police forces came to the site and took the two men away shortly after they started their protest.
Many similar protests have taken place in Kazakhstan in recent months, with demonstrators demanding Kazakh authorities officially intervene in the situation faced by ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang.
'Reeducation Camps'
In August 2018, the United Nations said an estimated 1 million Uyghurs and members of other indigenous ethnic groups in the region were being held in "counterextremism centers."
The UN said millions more had been forced into so-called "reeducation camps." China denies that the facilities are internment camps.
People who have fled the province say that thousands of ethnic Kazakhs, Uyghurs, and other Muslims in Xinjiang are undergoing "political indoctrination" at a network of camps.
Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs. The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans. Han, China's largest ethnicity, is the second-largest community in Xinjiang.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Jun 22, 2020
- Event Description
Reacting to news that a court in Almaty sentenced prisoner of conscience Alnur Ilyashev, a human rights activist, to three years of restricted freedom and a ban on political and civic activism for five years for criticizing the government�s handling of COVID-19, Heather McGill, Amnesty International�s Central Asia Researcher, said:
�The Kazakhstani authorities have shamelessly exploited the state of emergency that was called to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic to clamp down on voices of dissent. Alnur Ilyashev has committed no crime. He has only expressed his opinions peacefully which the authorities and their �experts� have portrayed as a criminal act and severely penalized.
�Alnur Ilyashev�s sentencing under absurd charges is a clear sign that it is business as usual in Kazakhstan and no independent voices will be permitted to criticize the government�s policies and actions. Any violation of the terms of the sentence will mean that Alnur Ilyashev will be imprisoned. On hearing the verdict, he asked to remain in prison.�
On 22 June, the Medeu District Court No. 2 of Almaty (Southern Kazakhstan) found Alnur Ilyashev guilty of the �dissemination of knowingly false information that threatens public order during the state of emergency� and sentenced him to restricted freedom (a form of non-custodial sentence) for three years and banned him from �voluntary political and social activism� for five years.
Under the conditions of restricted freedom, he will be required to report to a probation officer regularly and cannot leave his city of residence or employment without permission from the authorities. He was released during the court hearing.
Alnur Ilyashev was detained on 17 April over social media posts alleging that the authorities in Kazakhstan, including the ruling Nur Otan party, were corrupt and incompetent in their handling of COVID-19, among other things. During the trial, prosecution witnesses called as experts claimed that Alnur Ilyashev�s posts would cause the public �to be alarmed.�
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Freedom of movement, Right to liberty and security, Right to political participation
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Kazakhstan: pro-democracy defender arrested over false charges faces long-term imprisonment, his houses raided
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Jun 10, 2020
- Event Description
Police in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, have detained 12 activists who were picketing the European Union's office in the city.
The activists on June 10 were calling on EU officials to pressure Kazakh authorities to release three activists, Ruslan Nurqanov, Aibek Sabitov, and Darkhan Omirbaev, who were sentenced to jail terms of between 10 and 15 days last week on the eve of unsanctioned protests in Nur-Sultan. They were found guilty of calling for "illegal rallies."
During the demonstration, the protesters held portraits of the three jailed activists, as well as posters saying "European Union, Be With The Kazakh People!" and "#BlackLivesMatter #Kazakhstan."
One of the posters had a picture of a donkey with the face of the Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.
"We want police reforms! We want a new law on public protests! We are against the police state!" the protesters chanted before dozens of police forced them into vehicles and took them away.
Police in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan�s second-largest city, Almaty, and at least three other cities detained more than 100 people on June 6 during anti-government protests. Some of them were later sentenced to several days in jail for taking part in the unsanctioned protests.
In Almaty, on June 10, a noted civil rights activist, Asya Tulesova, was sentenced to 10 days in jail for taking part in the June 6 protest.
- Impact of Event
- 12
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Jun 10, 2020
- Event Description
Kazakh officials have forcibly placed a group of women from lower-income families who were picketing the Ministry of Labor and Social Support for increased government assistance into quarantine.
Video posted on Facebook showed a large group of individuals wearing protective equipment swarming the women at the ministry in Nur-Sultan, the capital, on June 10 and forcibly removing them in a chaotic scene punctuated by the screams of the protesters.
The women, who have been protesting outside the ministry since June 8, were taken to a nearby hotel.
When RFE/RL correspondents arrived at the hotel to get more information about the situation, individuals in protective garments and masks did not allow them to enter, saying that the hotel was now "a quarantine building."
Some 20 women launched the so-called "silent protests" after Kazakh authorities started lifting some restrictions imposed to slow down coronavirus spread.
The women were wearing sanitary masks marked with an "X" on them, which they said symbolized "the fact that we are not allowed to speak up."
They also held posters saying: "Cheap mortgages for families in need," "Financial support for each child," "Amnesty for poor families' bank credits," and "We are on a hunger strike."
Rallies and pickets by poor women have been held regularly in Nur-Sultan and other Kazakh cities since February last year, after five children from a single family died in a fire at night when their parents were working.
The tragedy triggered anger across the country and demonstrations where protesters demanded increased government support to families that had several children.
The protests were held periodically until restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus were introduced in mid-March.
Since the protests began last year, the Kazakh government has announced a special program to support families with more than three children.
Initially, such families were provided with an additional monthly allowance of 21,000 tenges ($50) per child. However, the sum has since been cut twice. From January, the allowances were given only to families officially recognized as living in poverty.
The women demanded a return of the benefits to the initial levels, as well as for more benefits to be given to all families with more than three children.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Freedom of movement, Offline, Right to Protest
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Jun 6, 2020
- Event Description
More than 100 opposition activists have been detained by police in Kazakhstan where two opposition parties had planned to hold rallies on June 6 in several cities to demand democratic reforms in the Central Asian nation.
Reports spoke of dozens being detained in Almaty, the country's commercial capital, as detentions were reported in other cities as well, including the capital, Nur-Sultan.
The detentions come despite a more liberal law on demonstrations coming into force.
Human rights groups have criticized President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev with failing to improve respect for human rights after replacing Nursultan Nazarbaev, who stepped down in 2019 after 30 years in power. The oil-rich nation has also been hit hard by a drop in energy prices caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
In Almaty, police, including riot units, cordoned off several central squares as well as streets near the area where at least 100 activists had gathered.
An RFE/RL correspondent said about a dozen people were detained near Ghandi Park. They were reported to be supporters of the Koshe party, which is affiliated with the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) party.
In several instances, unknown people holding umbrellas tried to stop journalists from filming.
The DVK and the Democratic Party had organized the rallies, which authorities said breached COVID-19 social-distancing rules. They also said a new law not requiring groups to obtain permission for rallies would still need a five-day notice period before being applied in practice. Technically, that law entered into force on June 6.
In Nur-Sultan, the capital, an RFE/RL correspondent later reported at least 10 protesters being arrested, with photos showing police hauling people away.
There were reports of at least 20 activists being detained by police in the cities of Semei, Shymkent, and Qyzylorda. Some arrests were also reported in Aqtobe. Later reports said about 30 people were also held by police in Oral. In Taraz, activists did not gather amid reports of arrest prior to the planned action.
Later reports said some had been freed, including those activists detained in Qyzylorda.
In Almaty, one group of activists carried a banner that read "I Can't Breathe" -- a reference to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, which has sparked sometimes violent protests across the United States.
Others chanted "Old man, go away!" -- a reference to Nazarbaev, who retains power in Kazakhstan as head of the country's Security Council, a post the 79-year-old is entitled to hold for life.
Others demanded the resignation of Toqaev and a fairer distribution of wealth.
The nation of 19 million people has been hit hard by a drop in crude oil prices as well as the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. More than 4 million people lost their sources of income during a two-month lockdown that ended last month, according to official data.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Freedom of movement, Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Apr 29, 2020
- Event Description
Between 29 April and 3 May 2020, human rights defender Yevgeniy Zhovtis was the target of anonline smear campaign in Kazakh media and on social media sites. The smear campaign waslaunched in response to his criticism of a new draft law as undermining freedom of assembly, andin particular his position on the right of non-nationals to participate in peaceful assemblies.Yevgeniy Zhovtis is a human rights defender and director of the Kazakhstan International Bureaufor Human Rights and Rule of Law and has been an outspoken critic of human rights violations inKazakhstan for the past 25 years. He is a member of the OSCE/ODIHR Panel of Experts onFreedom of Assembly and a Board Member of the International Bar Association Human RightsInstitute.On 7 February 2020, the Ministry of Information and Social Development of the Republic ofKazakhstan published the Concept of the Draft Law �On the Procedure for Organising and HoldingPeaceful Assemblies in the Republic of Kazakhstan�. On 11 February, Yevgeniy Zhovtis issued alegal analysis of the draft law, criticising its increased regulation of the right to assembly rather thanthe protection of such a right. In his analysis, the human rights defender highlighted the aspects ofthe draft law which did not comply with international standards on the subject of peacefulassembly, as outlined by international organizations. He also pointed to the elements of the draftlaw which contradicted the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights tofreedom of peaceful assembly and of association, issued following a visit to Kazakhstan in 2015. In partnership with human rights defender Bakhytzhan Toregozhina, Yevgeniy Zhovtis filed anappeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on 17 February. The appeal urges the Rapporteur to evaluatethe proposed draft law, and request the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan to draft a newlaw which would adhere to international standards and the recommendations of the SpecialRapporteur.Beginning 29 April, a series of posts and articles appeared on Kazakh social media and in themedia, accusing Yevgeniy Zhovtis of working in the interest of American, Russian and Chinesegovernments, in slanderous and insulting terms. Most of the publications categorically condemnedYevgeniy Zhovtis� position that non-nationals should have the right to assemble peacefully. Many ofthe social media posts condemning Yevgeniy Zhovtis seemed to originate from an article andFacebook post by Kazybek Isa, editor in chief of the newspaper Qazaquni and Deputy Head of thepolitical party Ak Zhol. Kazybek Isa is also a member of the National Council of Public Confidenceunder President Tokayev. On the same day, similar posts were published on social media sites by several other influentialmedia figures such as Arshat Oraz, the General Manager of the Kerek Media Group. SamatNurtaza, who Kazakh human rights defenders believe controls local ��internet troll factory�� alsocriticized Yevgeniy Zhovtis in social media posts. Over the next four days, these initial posts andarticles were re-posted by social media users and were used as the basis for further articles inother Kazakh media outlets, criticizing Yevgeniy Zhovtis. The posts and articles includedslanderous remarks about the human rights defender, describing him as ��Russian canned food��and an ��agent�� for Russia, a ��Trojan horse��, and accused him of ��dancing to the tune of those whofinance him��. Front Line Defenders is concerned regarding the impunity with which the public smear campaignagainst Yevgeniy Zhovtis was allowed to occur. It believes that this impunity can enable and fostera negative attitude towards human rights defenders, those who criticize the administration andthose who dissent. It is particularly concerned that the participation of political leaders andinfluential figures in Kazakh media may also serve to bolster such negative attitudes towardshuman rights defenders which can lead to attacks and violence against them. Front Line Defendersfears that the lack of condemnation of the smear campaign will create an environment in whichsimilar campaigns can be launched against other human rights defenders in Kazakhstan in thefuture and without consequence.Front Line Defenders considers the publication of these articles and social media posts as anorganized attempt to discredit Yevgeniy Zhovtis as a result of his legal analysis of the Concept ofthe Draft Law on the procedure for organizing and conducting peaceful assemblies in the Republicof Kazakhstan. It expresses concern regarding the hostility that Yevgeniy Zhovtis has experiencedand his psycho-social well-being as the victim of such humiliating and slanderous public attacks.Front Line Defenders believes that such hostility is a result of his peaceful and legitimate work as ahuman rights defender in Kazakhstan.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Online Attack and Harassment, Reprisal as Result of Communication, Vilification
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to information, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- NGO staff
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Corporation (others)
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Active
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Apr 18, 2020
- Event Description
The authorities of Kazakhstan begin to prosecute bloggers, public figures and journalists under the pretext that they disseminate knowingly false information.
So, at the end of last week, the civil activist Alnur Ilyashev was detained in Almaty, and well-known public figure and media manager Arman Shuraev was detained in Karaganda. At the same time, interestingly, information about the detention of Shuraev was released by the press service of the Police Department of Almaty.
Alnur Ilyashev is known primarily for his sharp criticism of the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev, as well as for his regular attempts to hold rallies. It should be noted that Ilyashev, unlike other opposition figures, tried not to violate the law on peaceful processions and rallies, but tried to do everything in the legal field. He regularly applied to the city hall for permission. As a result, Ilyashev became the organizer of the first rally authorized by the authorities of Almaty on June 30, 2019.
According to the Police Department of Almaty, Ilyashev repeatedly disseminated deliberately false information, and he ignored the demands to stop misleading citizens.
�He didn�t make the necessary conclusions even after the court�s decision on the protection of honor and business reputation, as a result of which the court ordered Alnur Ilyashev to take measures and post a rebuttal to the information previously spread by him,� the press service said, adding that a lawsuit was filed against the activist under article of the Criminal Code �Dissemination of knowingly false information in a state of emergency�, and he was placed in a temporary detention center. On April 18, the court authorized the arrest of Ilyashev for a period of two months.
As for Arman Shuraev, in 2004-2006, he headed the central bureau of the agency �Khabar� (National Television News Agency). In 2005, he headed the press service of the republican public headquarters of the candidate for president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev. Then he held the posts of deputy general director of the agency �Khabar�, chief inspector of the socio-political department of the Presidential Administration of Kazakhstan. From 2007 to 2014, he was the General Director of the Commercial Television Channel.
From July 2019 to March 2020, Shuraev was a member of the National Council of Public Confidence under the President of Kazakhstan.
�Mr. Shuraev repeatedly disseminated knowingly false information, that was not true, through social networks. By his actions, Shuraev created the danger of disturbing public order and causing substantial harm to the interests of society and the state protected by law in a state of emergency,� the police of Almaty said.
At the same time, the court of Almaty denied reporters to be present at the court hearing on the decision of a measure of restraint against Shuraev.
�Regarding the participation of the media in the process, I inform you that the communication channel is limited. For technical reasons, it will not be possible to connect everyone, only the participants in the process. I hope for your understanding. The courts of Almaty have always promptly reported and will report on the results of the consideration of cases that caused a public outcry. In case of receipt of the aforementioned material to the court of inquiry, we will promptly and without fail inform the media of the results of the review,� the press secretary of the City Court of Almaty, Abai Zharylkasyn, said on social networks.
Meanwhile, the detention of Ilyashev and Shuraev caused a great resonance in the media sphere of Kazakhstan.
According to the International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech �Adil Soz�, the campaign to accuse journalists and civic activists of disseminating knowingly false information, committed in a state of emergency, causes serious worry.
�This article of the Criminal Code has been criticized for a long time for the uncertainty of the object of the crime � �the danger of disturbing public order�, �the interests of citizens, society and the state�. According to the results of the fourth Universal Periodic Review, Kazakhstan was again given recommendations �to protect the space for dissent by amending or repealing the articles 174 and 274 of the Criminal Code�, �refrain from using criminal provisions as instruments to suppress the expression of uncoordinated opinions�. What is happening now, it is difficult to interpret otherwise than precisely the suppression of disliked opinions under pain of imprisonment,� the Foundation said in an open appeal to the Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan, Gizat Nurdauletov.
The �Adil soz� also emphasizes that the fight against fake information can be only by contrasting reliable and various information, public discussions and open debate.
�Detentions, arrests, imprisonment and other terrifying actions, instead of desired complacency, can spread even greater alarm and panic. It can also stop the civilized development of the country and bring it back to many years ago. The International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech �Adil Soz� considers it necessary for the Prosecutor General to carefully monitor compliance with the law in pre-trial investigations and not allow a �witch hunt� in difficult conditions of emergency,� the open appeal summarizes.
In turn, the fact-checking resource of Kazakhstan [factcheck.kz] also issued an official statement regarding the detention of Shuraev and Ilyashev.
�We, as the organization whose activities are directly related to countering false information, believe that the sanctions imposed on Arman Shuraev and Alnur Ilyashev are excessive, the reasons for the detention and arrest are not transparent. In the context of infodemia, when citizens of Kazakhstan are daily attacked by real misinformers and swindlers, detentions and arrests of activists and journalists can be interpreted solely as an attempt to put pressure on civil society and violate the right to freedom of expression. We demand the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the General Prosecutor�s office and the Ministry of Justice to take measures to prevent violations of the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens of Kazakhstan. The cases of Arman Shuraev and Alnur Ilyashev should be carefully considered in terms of abuse of authority by the police and other involved bodies. For the duration of the investigation, a minimum measure of restraint should be chosen. We also demand a fully open trial if the investigation in these cases is not terminated,� the statement said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Vilification
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to political participation, Right to protect reputation
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Apr 17, 2020
- Event Description
Kazakhstani human rights activist, Alnur Ilyashev, has been arrested for his publications on social media that criticised the ruling Nur Otan party and its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is being prosecuted for �spreading false information� that harms �interests� during the state in emergency, a crime which carries up to seven years in prison. Alnur Ilyashev is a prisoner of conscience and must be released immediately and unconditionally.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Apr 6, 2020
- Event Description
Civil rights activists in Kazakhstan have been under mounting pressure in the past several days as the authorities impose even stricter controls to slow the spread of coronavirus.
On April 7, police in the western city of Oral detained well-known blogger and civil rights activist Aslan Sagutdinov.
Sagutdinov posted on Facebook the moment he was detained outside a grocery store.
Oral regional police spokesman Bolat Belgibekov told RFE/RL that Sagutdinov was detained over a libel probe launched against him in a lawsuit filed by a local resident. Belgibekov added that Sagutdinov will also be charged with disobeying police for resisting arrest.
"He broke the police car's window," Belgibekov claimed.
Sagutdinov made headlines in May 2019 amid the mass arrest of rights and opposition activists across the country after he staged a one-man protest in Oral's main square holding a blank piece of paper. He was detained, but later released after police could not determine what to charge him with.
Another blogger and civil rights activist, Baghdat Baqtybaev, was sentenced to 10 days in jail in the southern region of Zhambyl for a live video broadcast on Facebook of long lines of people at a post office in the village of Tolebi. The residents were desperately trying to obtain social benefits the government has promised to people left unemployed because of the pandemic.
Baqtybaev's wife, Diana, told RFE/RL late on April 7 that her husband was jailed the day before after a court found him guilty of "conducting actions violating law and order during the state of emergency." She said her husband will spend 28 days in jail, as another 18-day jail term he received days earlier on similar charges will come into force on April 16.
Bakhytzhan Toreghozhina, the head of the Almaty-based human rights foundation Ar.Rukh.Khaq, told RFE/RL by phone on April 8 that the Kazakh authorities were concerned about any domestic and international spotlight of their efforts to handle the spread of coronavirus in the Central Asian country.
"Kazakh authorities have always silenced dissent by imposing pressure on bloggers and rights activists, and now they are doing everything to muzzle activists to prevent their criticism of the government's anti-coronavirus measures," Toreghozhina said.
The government promised to distribute 42,500 tenges ($95) to citizens who have lost their jobs due to lockdown measures imposed to slow the coronavirus pandemic. However, cash distribution has been hindered by bureaucratic hurdles, causing long lines at banks and post offices across the country in violation of regulations ordering people stay 2 meters away from each other to prevent coronavirus infection.
As of April 8, the number of registered coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan stood at 709, including seven deaths.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Vilification
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Online, Right to information
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Mar 11, 2020
- Event Description
A Kazakhstan court has convicted two activists who were prosecuted for peaceful acts of free expression during an International Women’s Day march in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Human Rights Watch said today. The Kazakh authorities should vacate the convictions.
On March 11, 2020, in closed hearings, Almaty’s specialized inter-district administrative court found Irina Pukhnatova, better known as Arina Osinovskaya, and Fariza Ospan guilty of administrative charges of petty hooliganism for the symbolic burning of a funeral wreath in a public place. The act took place during a March 8 women’s rights rally against all forms of violence against women and gender discrimination. Osinovskaya was also convicted for violating the law on organizing and holding peaceful demonstrations. Both were penalized with administrative fines. They plan to appeal.
“Instead of protecting its citizens’ fundamental freedoms, the Kazakh government is using the judicial system to repress and convict women activists who were standing up for the rights of all women,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Kazakh authorities should immediately halt the prosecution, vacate the conviction, and stop using the law to stifle freedom of assembly and expression.”
Kazakhstan’s authorities have, for years, routinely used the repressive law on peaceful assembly, adopted in 1995 and last amended in 2004, to ban or restrict public demonstrations and protests. The Kazakh parliament is currently considering a new law, but local human rights activists have expressed concern that the draft will allow unjustified restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly to persist.
Several feminist groups organized the March 8, 2020 protest in the center of Almaty. One of the co-organizers told Human Rights Watch that they informed the Almaty city administration in December 2019 of their intent to march in the city center on March 8, stating their readiness to coordinate the route with the authorities and asking them to ensure the participants’ safety. On January 6, Almaty city authorities responded by saying that the applicants’ “statement” did not meet the demands of the law and that they were returning it to address the deficiencies.
The response also stated that it was recommended to hold all nongovernmental social and political events outside of the city center, citing a 2005 decree by the local government. Because Kazakh authorities regularly stifle freedom of assembly by rejecting requests on grounds of technical “deficiencies” or by claiming that the proposed protest sites are unavailable, the organizers decided to proceed with the planned march without resubmitting an application.
Osinovskaya told Human Right Watch that the march itself was peaceful, although city administration officials intervened twice by shouting into loudspeakers that the march was unsanctioned.
On March 10, 2020, Ospan posted on her Facebook page that she had received a summons to report to the police station on March 11. On March 11, Osinovskaya also posted on her Facebook page that she had received a summons. The hearings for both women took place on March 11. Ospan told HRW that from the moment they arrived at the police station they were accompanied by police officers, including over lunch and even to the toilet, until the actual court proceedings began. Although the judge initially granted Osinovskaya’s motion to allow media and independent monitors into the courtroom for her hearing, it was held behind closed doors, with no media or monitors allowed inside. Ospan’s hearing was also closed.
According to information Human Rights Watch received from reliable sources, at least three other women activists are the subject of police inquiries following the march.
The Almaty March 8 rally was a protest against gender-based violence and inequality, including domestic violence, which is not criminalized as a standalone offense under Kazakhstan’s laws. Domestic violence in Kazakhstan, including deaths at the hands of an abusive husband or partner, is a serious concern for local and international organizations. A new draft law on combating domestic violence, currently in the lower chamber of Parliament, does not criminalize domestic violence as a standalone offense. As protests increased in Kazakhstan in 2019, the authorities routinely denied government critics or political opposition permits for peaceful meetings, regularly dispersed demonstrations, sometimes using force, jailed people who tried to publicly express views in opposition to the government policies, and arbitrarily detained picketers.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Offline, Right to Protest
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 26, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Feb 22, 2020
- Event Description
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Kazakh authorities to stop harassing Inga Imanbay, an opposition journalist who has been assaulted while trying to film her husband’s arrest, forced to resign as a newspaper editor, and named during a colleague’s illegal interrogation. Those who attacked her must be brought to justice, RSF said.
The police have done nothing in response to the complaint Imanbay filed on 1 March about the attack, although the deadline for them to take action has expired. Imanbay, who is several months pregnant, was attacked during the arrest of her husband, Zhanbolat Mamay, a former journalist who is one of a new opposition party’s founders.
When Imanbay tried to use her phone to film the men – plainclothes policemen, according to Imanbay – who came to take her husband to a police station to prevent him attending a demonstration, the phone was snatched out of her hands, although she had shown her press card, and her head was slammed against a metal fence.
As a result, she had to seek emergency medical attention at a hospital for a slight concussion.
Imanbay had been appointed editor of the independent daily Zhas Alash in early January but was sidelined from this position and, as a result, forced to resign on 20 February, shortly before demonstrations in support of Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK), the new party of which her husband had assumed the leadership.
Imanbay said she was sidelined under pressure from the authorities because of her articles about former President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his family, and because of her husband’s new role.
“Inga Imanbay is being subjected to full-blown harassment,” said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. “We call on the Kazakh authorities to respect their international obligations by conducting a transparent and effective investigation into the attack against her and by bringing those responsible to trial.
“Free media are essential for a democratic debate and for the credibility of the reformist discourse employed by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who has been president for nearly a year. Not to speak of the requirement on government to guarantee journalists’ safety.”
The police are also planning to open a criminal investigation into a Zhas Alash article about former President Nazarbayev for “inciting social hatred.” This is what they told the article’s author, Askhat Akhan, when they interrogated him on 29 February without his lawyer being present. They wanted to know if Imanbay had commissioned the article.
The police prevented several journalists from covering a day of protest in support of the new opposition party on 22 February. Kazakhstan is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Violence (physical), Wounds and Injuries
- Rights Concerned
- Media freedom, Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to work
- HRD
- Media Worker, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 25, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Mar 1, 2020
- Event Description
Police in authoritarian Kazakhstan detained dozens of people in the Central Asian country's largest city Sunday, March 1, after an activist's death in jail triggered diplomatic condemnation and calls for anti-government rallies.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents in Almaty saw around 40 people detained by police close to the city hall, where two opposition groups had called for anti-government rallies.
Elsewhere in the city, 26 members of Oyan Qazaqstan, one of the groups that called for a rally, were detained in the morning before they had a chance to reach the protest site, a member of the group told AFP.
"According to our information, they have not been released yet," Dimash Alzhanov, one of Oyan Qazaqstan's founding members, told AFP by telephone.
One man who AFP correspondents saw bundled into a van full of detainees by black-clad police appealed to "the lawmakers in the European parliament," which sent a delegation to Kazakhstan last month.
"My constitutional rights are being violated. This is the 21st century!" the man cried out as he was shoved into the van.
Two journalists were also amongst those detained on Sunday.
The protests were called after Dulat Agadil, a prominent activist, died in detention hours after he was detained by plainclothes police on Monday night, February 24.
Both the United States and the United Kingdom raised concern over his death this week and called for a "thorough" investigation.
Activists have cited video footage of Agadil's corpse with bruises as evidence that he was beaten in detention, rather than dying of heart failure, as police said on Tuesday, February 25.
The state prosecutor's office on Friday called on citizens not to make "hasty conclusions" about the bruises, which the office said was common on corpses.
Kazakhstan regularly cracks down on citizens who attempt to hold rallies, citing laws that make public assemblies subject to permits from the authorities.
The country is in the process of changing its legislation on public assemblies, and a draft of the new law has been released for public discussion.
But civil society groups in the Central Asian state have expressed dissatisfaction with a new draft law, which they argue would introduce additional restrictions.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association, Freedom of movement, Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Media Worker, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Kazakhstan: pro-democracy defender dies in detention
- Date added
- Mar 11, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Feb 25, 2020
- Event Description
Officials in Kazakhstan have poured scorn on mounting allegations that a political activist who lost his life earlier this week while in police custody had been subjected to violent treatment.
The deputy prosecutor for the city of Nur-Sultan, Eldos Kilymzhanov, said on February 28 that lesions seen on Dulat Agadil’s body were indicative of a natural death and are the kinds of marks that would appear after cardiac arrest, news website Nur.kz reported.
The remarks are threatening to ignite more rage over a death whose cause is not yet fully understood.
A five-minute video clip showing Agadil’s body lying in the morgue has been circulating on social media and through messaging apps. The images have given fresh impetus to online speculation that the activist, a 43-year-old father of six who was detained by police on the evening of February 24, could have been assaulted by his jailers.
Activist Bakhytzhan Toregozhina demanded the immediate resignation of Interior Minister Yerlan Turgumbayev and for the agents who detained Agadil to be arrested.
“Dulat was beaten savagely and without mercy. He was protecting himself – [marks on] his wrists clearly attest to that,” Toregozhina wrote on Facebook.
Similar suspicions helped fuel the impromptu rallies and marches that took place following Agadil’s funeral on February 27 in Talapker, a village on the northwestern edge of Nur-Sultan. More than 1,000 mourners reportedly attended.
Several dozen gathered at the local prosecutor’s office and the city hall in Almaty.
In Nur-Sultan, police detained some 40 people returning to the city from Agadil’s funeral to register their anger at the death and to demand a thorough and independent investigation, according to KazTag news agency. Detainees included former MP Serikbay Alibayev and human rights activist Talas Sagimbayev.
But at his press briefing, Kilymzhanov lashed out at the people who released the video footage of Agadil’s body, saying that this had violated the wishes of the late activist’s family. He disputed talk of a cover-up and said that an autopsy had been carried in the presence of Agadil’s brother and two independent specialists.
“We have already made the findings public. The cause of death was severe cardiac failure. A definitive evaluation based on the forensic examinations will be provided as soon as possible,” Kilymzhanov said.
Agadil was routinely hauled into jail, ultimately in connection with his suspected links to the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, or DVK, political party.
According to the calculations of RFE/RL’s Kazakh service, Radio Azattyq, Agadil had spent over 60 days in detention in the last year or so.
For the most part, these offenses were directly or indirectly related to Kazakhstan’s draconian laws on freedom of assembly.
Officers on this occasion detained him because of an alleged violation of the terms of his house arrest. That house arrest, in turn, was linked to contempt of court charges that date back to January.
In recent times, Agadil and other activists had affiliated themselves with the Koshe, or “Street” party, a decoy to shield activists from the ramifications of supporting DVK, a movement that is headed by exiled regime foe Mukhtar Ablyazov and that was in 2018 designated as extremist by a Kazakh court.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Death, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Right to life
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Suspected state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Kazakhstan: pro-democracy defender dies in detention
- Date added
- Mar 11, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Feb 22, 2020
- Event Description
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns press freedom violations by police in recent days in Kazakhstan, where reporters were prevented from covering a day of protest called by a banned opposition party on 22 February, especially in the northwestern city of Oral.
Two journalists were arrested in Oral and at least two others received police summonses as they were preparing to cover rallies called by Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK), which is regarded as an “extremist” party and banned in Kazakhstan although the European Parliament has called it a “peaceful opposition movement.”
Two reporters for the Uralskaya Nedelya regional newspaper, Akmaral Fedorova and Alexei Vorobyov, were held at Abaysk police station in Oral. Fedorova was arrested on the morning of 22 February as she was filming a one-man picket, one of the few forms of political protest allowed in Kazakhstan. Vorobyov was arrested shortly after midday near a DVK rally, to which he had been sent by his editors. He was questioned about his links to the party.
The police questioned Uralskaya Nedelya editor Lukpan Akhmedyarov for four hours as a witness in connection with a three-year-old criminal case. He has often been summoned for questioning in the past just before a protest – three times in 2018 and five in 2019. Radio Azattyk journalist Maria Melnikova also received a summons on the eve of the protests to give a statement the next day in connection with a ten-year-old case.
“We urge Kazakhstan not to tighten the vice on press freedom again after relative positive developments in recent months, when a journalist, Amangeldy Batyrbekov, was acquitted and President Tokayev announced that he was decriminalizing defamation,” said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. “Arrests in connection with protests and ‘summonses to give statements” violate the right to inform.”
Although Batyrbekov was acquitted of defamation on 9 January, the police began targeting him again on 14 February, when they detained him inside a bus for several hours during a public meeting by the Turkistan region’s governor, damaging his camera. They only let him go after the governor had left.
Kazakhstan is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Media freedom, Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 4, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Feb 22, 2020
- Event Description
Kazakhstani authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all peaceful protesters who were arrested during a massive crackdown on demonstrations today, Amnesty International said. At least 70 people were detained in Almaty when protesters took to the streets demanding the registration of opposition parties and an end to the repression of government critics. Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:
“Kazakhstan’s already poor human rights record has just got even worse. This cowardly campaign of intimidation against critics shows how badly the government fears freedom of expression.
“The Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, a newly created opposition party, was forced to cancel its founding congress today in response to relentless harassment by the authorities. We are also calling for the release of all those who have been detained simply for expressing support for the Democratic Party and other opposition groups.
“These attempts to crush Kazakhstan’s nascent opposition movement are shameful. Forming a political party is a manifestation of the fundamental human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. Kazakhstan’s authorities must fully respect these rights and release anyone who has been detained in the context of protests or opposition support.”
Background
Some of the detainees align themselves with the unregistered Democratic Party. Its organizing committee announced the cancellation of party’s constituent congress scheduled on 22 February and called on its supporters to take part in peaceful protests. According to the party’s representatives, dozens of its supporters were subjected to harassment and other pressure on the eve of the congress in Almaty and other Kazakhstani cities. At least 23 people were put under administrative arrest under various spurious pretexts.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of movement, Offline, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 3, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Dec 10, 2019
- Event Description
Two activists arrested by authorities in Kazakhstan last week were likely detained because they challenged government plans to deport a pair of ethnic Kazakh Chinese nationals who fled persecution in neighboring China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), according to fellow rights campaigners.
Qaster Musakhanuly and Murager Alimuly, ethnic Kazakh resdents of Dorbiljin (in Chinese, Emin) county and Chochek (Tacheng) city in the XUAR’s Tarbaghatay (Tacheng) prefecture, fled across the border to Kazakhstan and arrived in Almaty on Oct. 8, before holding a press conference at the office of the Atajurt rights group two days later, calling for asylum.
Alimuly said he had been subjected to persecution in the XUAR, while Musakhanuly claimed he had spent years in one of an estimated 1,300-1,400 internment camps in the region, where authorities are believed to have held 1.8 million ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas since April 2017.
On Oct. 14, the two men were formally accused of illegally entering Kazakhstan and placed in pretrial detention, and earlier this month Darkhan Dilmanov, the deputy chief of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee, announced that they will be deported, despite the objections of Atajurt’s activists, who say the pair will “definitely” face torture and possible death if sent home.
On Dec. 9, Atajurt members Kapar Akhat and Zhumamurat Shamshi—both Kazakhstan nationals—held a press conference in which they recommended that the Kazakh government reconsider plans to deport Musakhanuly and Alimuly.
The press conference came a week after Akhat and Shamshi had called on Kazakh activists and members of the public to write letters to the delegation of the European Union to Kazakhstan, and had also themselves written multiple letters to the U.S. Embassy and other Western consular missions, urging them to stop the deportation.
A day after the Dec. 9 press conference, on International Human Rights Day, Kazakh national security officials detained Akhat and Shamshi, but did not a give a reason for their arrest.
Speaking to RFA’s Uyghur Service, an Atajurt official named Guljan said that the two members of her group, which works to highlight the plight of ethnic Kazakhs held in internment camps in the XUAR, were likely detained because they had publicly protested the refusal to grant Musakhanuly and Alimuly asylum, and the decision to deport them to China.
“Kapar Akhat is one of the most important people working for Atajurt in [the capital] Nur-sultan (formerly Astana),” she said.
“He speaks very openly and forcefully about what’s happening, and it’s likely because of that [that he’s been detained]. He speaks to governments and all kinds of organizations, and on multiple occasions he has spoken onstage at events about the trials of Serikzhan and other activists,” she added, referring to Atajurt founder Serikzhan Bilash.
Bilash faced seven years imprisonment for “inter-ethnic incitement” after calling for an “information Jihad” against China’s policies in the XUAR, but accepted a plea bargain during his trial in his hometown of Almaty on Aug. 16 that restricts his activism in exchange for his freedom.
Guljan said that while there are “many reporters in Kazakhstan,” few people are willing to hold the country’s government to account for its actions in cases like that of Musakhanuly and Alimuly, so Shamshi decided to highlight the issue at two high profile conferences.
“He spoke passionately about the stories of these two men who fled to Kazakhstan, so it is maybe for this reason [that he was detained],” she said.
Guljan acknowledged that Atajurt “[doesn’t] know for sure” the reason for the arrests of Akhat and Shamshi, but said that the two men “don’t have access to lawyers.”
Orunbasari Bekzat Mahsutkhan, who has operated Atajurt in Bilash’s absence, told RFA that his organization has retained lawyers for the two and plans to file a formal lawsuit over their detention in a court of law.
“Kazakhstan national security … They’re making a lot of excuses, but there are no grounds for what they’re doing [to Akhat and Shamshi],” he said.
“They locked them up and they have yet to be released.”
Neighbors under fire
Kazakhstan and other Central Asian nations have come under fire in recent years for targeting activists who have spoken out about, and Chinese nationals who have fled, Beijing’s policy of mass incarceration in the XUAR.
The situation is particularly sensitive in Kazakhstan, where nearly half a million ethnic Kazakhs now live after escaping persecution in the Chinese region.
Serikzhan Bilash had been under house arrest since being detained in March and flown to Nur-Sultan amid accusations from Chinese officials that he had "fabricated" the cases of fellow ethnic Kazakhs in XUAR camps he was documenting, in an arrest that was widely seen as having been made at Beijing's behest.
Speaking to RFA’s Uyghur Service in August, Bilash said that Kazakhstan was forced to make an arrangement with regards to his case that satisfied both Beijing and the Western governments and rights groups that had called for his release since his detention earlier this year.
The plea bargain during his trial was a compromise, he said, adding that he believes the Kazakh government is likely to have secured financial assurances from Beijing for targeting him.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in August that Kazakhstan’s decision to force an internationally respected activist to limit his own freedom of expression “speaks volumes of the authorities’ disrespect for justice and rule of law” and demonstrates the country’s “readiness to sacrifice human rights to maintain good relations with its neighbour, China.”
The group called for authorities to drop the conditions on his release and urged Kazakhstan to “think beyond its ties with China to its obligations to respect and comply with international human rights law.”
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 10, 2020
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Initial Date
- Sep 3, 2019
- Event Description
An appeals court in Kazakhstan on September 3 upheld a decision denying Feminita, a national feminist initiative, registration as a nongovernmental organization (NGO). The group’s focus includes the rights of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women.
The Almaty department of the Justice Ministry had refused the group registration on the grounds that it didn’t comply with the Law on Noncommercial Organizations. That refusal was upheld as lawful by both a lower-level court and the appeals court. Registration is required for the group to operate lawfully in the country, and to conduct activities such as raising money and hosting events.
“This appeals court ruling allows an arbitrary and discriminatory decision by the Ministry of Justice to stand,” said Laura Mills, Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Kazakhstan authorities should stop preventing groups from operating lawfully just because they are critical of the government or work on controversial issues.”
Kazakh authorities have denied registration to certain organizations that are critical of or work on issues deemed controversial by the authorities, for example an organization that campaigns against mass surveillance and detention of ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang province in China. They have also repeatedly denied registration to independent trade unions.
Feminita, which has been operating informally since 2015, focuses on promoting the rights of marginalized women in Kazakhstan, from lesbian, bisexual, and queer women to those with disabilities, and sex workers. In December 2017, it first applied for official registration as an NGO, but registration was denied three times over the course of the year.
Each time, the Almaty department of the Justice Ministry said that the organization did not comply with the Law on Noncommercial Organizations. But even though it is required to do so by law, it did not explain what the shortcomings were or what steps Feminita needed to take to comply. Feminita told Human Rights Watch that it does comply with the law.
Feminita filed a case against the Ministry of Justice. In May 2019, a judge ruled that Feminita was not eligible to register under the Law on Noncommercial Organizations or the Law on Charities, holding that its stated goals did not “provide for the strengthening of existing spiritual-moral values … [and] the prestige and role of family in society.” Feminita had not sought to register under the charities law because it doesn’t provide any charitable services.
The appeals court ruled to uphold the lower court’s decision, but provided no further explanation supporting the decision to deny Feminita registration. Nor did it explain how the refusal to register the group could be compatible with the right to freedom of association.
“It feels like they are constantly searching for grounds to stop our work,” Zhanar Sekerbaeva, co-founder of Feminita, told Human Rights Watch. “There are and have been for a long time lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women in Kazakhstan, and with this [denial] it is as if they are excluding an entire group from society.”
In 2015, Kazakhstan changed its laws essentially to allow the government to regulate funding for nongovernmental groups through a government-appointed body. In addition, individuals can face hefty fines and administrative charges if they direct or participate in an unregistered organization.
Kazakhstan is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which requires it to respect the right to freedom of association. The Human Rights Committee, which oversees compliance with the ICCPR, has repeatedly said that “the existence and operation of associations, including those which peacefully promote ideas not necessarily favorably received by the government or the majority of the population, is a cornerstone of a democratic society.”
The committee has held that an arbitrary refusal to register an organization violates the right to freedom of association, and that preventing an organization from operating is only justified if it is “necessary to avert a real and not only hypothetical threat to national security or democratic order, that less intrusive measures would be insufficient to achieve the same purpose, and that the restriction is proportionate to the interest to be protected.”
Feminita members have experienced discriminatory treatment by the authorities before. In 2019, the authorities denied Feminita permission to organize a march for International Women’s Day multiple times. In August 2018, Sekerbaeva was detained, charged with “minor hooliganism,” and fined $30 because she organized a photo shoot that she said was intended to destigmatize menstruation. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Kazakhstan routinely face harassment, discrimination, and the threat of violence.
“Kazakh authorities should reverse course and allow Feminita and all other groups arbitrarily denied registration to register and operate lawfully within the country,” Mills said. “Kazakhstan has nothing to fear from independent organizations and has obligations to live up to.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Gender Based Harassment, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association, Offline, Right to political participation, Women's rights
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, NGO, SOGI rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 2, 2019
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