ALMATY, Kazakhstan — For all of the discuss of a altering political tradition, is Kazakhstan now even much less tolerant of political competitors than ever earlier than?
That’s the query some observers are asking after a political activist was handed a heavy sentence in a closed trial, with a punishment of comparable magnitude anticipated for an additional quickly.
Nurzhan Altaev and Marat Zhylanbaev are several types of opposition determine; one an ex-official, the opposite from exterior the system.
However the message of Kazakh authorities to any would-be authorities opponent seems to be the identical: No candidates want apply for this place.
First, the formalities.
Altaev, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail on November 21, was not formally charged with crimes regarding his political activism.
He was as an alternative accused of bribe-taking as deputy labor minister a number of years in the past — fees he strongly denies.
However it’s laborious to not discover how his trial has run in parallel to Zhylanbaev’s, wherein prosecutors final week requested a 10-year sentence for “political extremism.”
And it’s laborious to not discover how each males lead unregistered events which can be crucial of the federal government.
Bakytzhan Toregozhina, a longtime rights defender, argues that if Zhylanbaev have been to obtain the same type of sentence it might be doable to name the punishments unprecedented.
“In current occasions, authorities have banned political events, labeling them as extremist after which focused activists. However the sentences have been smaller. I don’t recall situations the place the state has so demonstratively punished opposition figures with a purpose to frighten civil society,” she mentioned.
On the identical time, the harsher method to political competitors “exhibits the worry of the authorities,” practically two years after the lethal unrest generally known as Bloody January that left not less than 238 folks useless and the regime on the brink, Toregozhina argued.
Closed Courtrooms In ’Truthful Kazakhstan’
The yardstick in opposition to which present President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev’s rule is inevitably in comparison with is the virtually 30-year reign of first President Nursultan Nazarbaev — the person who ushered him into the presidency in 2019 just for an influence wrestle to emerge between their respective camps.
Now 83 and formally retired, Nazarbaev had his fair proportion of political prisoners, though lots of the longest-serving amongst these couldn’t be described as opposition leaders, aspiring or in any other case.
One politician who did match that description, Vladimir Kozlov, was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in 2012 on fees of inciting an tried coup, serving 4 years earlier than being launched.
Kozlov’s ally, Mukhtar Ablyazov, was sentenced in 2018 to life imprisonment on an array of fees that included homicide — although in absentia because the ex-energy minister fled the nation in 2009.
Earlier within the years following independence, two different former officers turned Nazarbaev opponents died in mysterious circumstances, which noticed critics level fingers at a hardening regime.
Comparisons between then and now are related insofar as Toqaev has actively inspired them.
Within the aftermath of the January 2022 unrest — the worst within the historical past of unbiased Kazakhstan — Toqaev promised a New Kazakhstan after which a Truthful Kazakhstan with a purpose to right what he described as among the “doable oversights” of mentor Nazarbaev’s time on the prime.
He was talking on the time as a newly empowered president after Nazarbaev ceded key levers of affect that had allowed him to dominate his protege, even after he had resigned as head of state.
However the nation’s courtrooms are suggesting little in the way in which of change.
Talking hours after Altaev’s sentencing, his lawyer and a fellow member of the unregistered El Tiregi (Folks’s Pillar) get together, Nursultan Ermakhanov, informed RFE/RL that the closed trial had run the total gamut of judicial woes related to political circumstances in Kazakhstan.
Having been closed due to alleged concern for the safety of a witness, the decide convicted Altaev primarily based on the testimony of two folks beneath investigation as a part of the case.
Testimonies that shed any doubt on the potential of Altaev taking common bribes from the Atameken Nationwide Chamber of Entrepreneurs when he labored there have been fully ignored, Ermakhanov complained.
“Round 90 p.c of [the defense’s] motions have been ignored. The method was pushed by on the velocity of sunshine. When the press discovered that the prosecution wished a 12-year sentence for Altaev, the decide even threatened to file for the suspension of our lawyer’s license. This was hardly info that wanted to be stored secret,” mentioned Ermakhanov, arguing the closed trial was vital in order that authorities “wouldn’t look silly in entrance of the entire of Kazakhstan.”
From Inside The System To Inside A Cell
Based on Ermakhanov, Altaev had “naively believed that he might change the system from the within,” whereas serving first as an official after which as a lawmaker.
That naivety was uncovered shortly after he presided over the inaugural convention of the pro-reform El Tiregi get together in September 2020 whereas nonetheless a member of Kazakhstan’s decrease home and ruling get together.
Certain sufficient, Altaev was quickly ejected from each of these establishments, though he was not overtly crucial of the administration to start with and never everybody was satisfied of his opposition credentials.
Stress on the politician intensified after he introduced his intention to run for president in snap November 2022 elections that have been the primary for the reason that nationwide bloodshed earlier within the yr and after constitutional modifications that Toqaev had claimed have been a part of a ”new political tradition.”
As a fluent Kazakh speaker, with greater than 5 years of state service, and backed by a nomination from a registered group, Altaev appeared to comfortably meet Kazakhstan’s very limiting standards for candidates.
However Toqaev’s staff was not blissful, Ermakhanov mentioned.
Quickly after Toqaev introduced the election, prime Toqaev officers invited Altaev to a sit-down the place he was requested to rule himself out of the election, with El Tiregi’s authorized registration thrown in as a sweetener. This proposal, Ermakhanov claimed, was brokered by former Atameken get together head Ablai Myrzhakhmetov, who would later develop into the chief witness — even whereas beneath investigation himself — on the former deputy labor minister’s bribe-taking trial.
Altaev refused the supply and was duly excluded from the presidential race, with the group that nominated him as a presidential candidate “raided” and shortly taken over, based on Ermakhanov.
Not one of the officers that Ermakhanov claimed have been on the September 2022 assembly, together with presidential adviser Erlan Karin and present Overseas Minister Murat Nurtleu, have ever commented on it, regardless of accounts of the occasion revealed within the media earlier this yr.
Altaev was then arrested in June.
Marathon Runner A Nonstarter
The trial of Zhylanbaev, a marathon runner who participated in races around the globe, was additionally closed to the general public.
As with Altaev’s course of, the decide made the choice after witnesses claimed their safety had been threatened.
With out a political profession on his résumé, the 60-year-old Zhylanbaev is untainted by the associations that accompany excessive workplace in Kazakhstan.
However prosecutors declare he’s tainted by affiliation with Ablyazov, who on prime of his different alleged ills can be in command of a community of extremist organizations, based on Kazakh courts.
The French-based Ablyazov has steadfastly denied all felony fees in opposition to him, whereas the European Parliament has deemed the unregistered Democratic Selection of Kazakhstan (DCK) get together and others related to him as “peaceable opposition actions” in resolutions about Kazakhstan.
Kazakh prosecutors have accused Zhylanbaev, the chairman of the unregistered Algha Kazakhstan! (Ahead Kazakhstan!) get together, of receiving directions from “extremist” DCK members and of “financing” them.
Based on Human Rights Watch (HRW), which reviewed Zhylanbaev’s indictment, the one recognized foundation for the second accusation is 2 wire transfers amounting to only over $2,500.
“The sum complete of Zhylanbaev’s so-called wrongdoing is publicly however peacefully advocating for a political different to Kazakhstan’s authoritarian authorities, and he must be launched,” concluded Mihra Rittmann, HRW’s senior Central Asia researcher in a press release on the case this month.
Zhylanbaev definitely seems to have made each effort doable to play by the principles.
His try and run as an unbiased in parliamentary elections held earlier this yr was squashed after he was accused of breaking marketing campaign guidelines with an “early” on-line crowdfunding attraction.
Algha Kazakhstan! has tried to register with the Justice Ministry greater than a dozen occasions, however has been refused every time.
In March, Zhylanbaev transgressed by collaborating in an unsanctioned political demonstration — spontaneous demonstrations are outlawed in Kazakhstan — and was sentenced to twenty days in detention.
Zhylanbaev has been behind bars ever since then as prosecutors have piled way more severe fees upon him.
He has been on a starvation strike October 30, shedding 13 kilograms, based on his lawyer.
On November 18, a listening to of his case in Astana was tense as an official warned his supporters that gathering on the courthouse constituted an administrative offense.
Talking exterior the constructing, Zhylanbaev’s daughter Aziya Zhylanbaeva informed RFE/RL that her household was being “continuously intimidated” by authorities on account of her father’s activism.
“I merely really feel frightened residing in my residence nation,” she mentioned by tears. “That is my nation however I don’t really feel protected right here.”