Over 100 people were detained for joining to a so-called anti-government meeting in several cities in the Central Asian state. Kazakhstani people went out on ordinary Thursday to ask “Freedom for political prisoners” from authorities. Some of them repeatedly said, “Stop tortures”.
Peaceful protesters gathered in front of some European countries’ embassies in Astana early, in the morning of May 10, to show their right speak out against the political imprisonment of innocent citizens in Kazakhstan.
Well informed law enforcement and police authorities acted immediately to stop cohort by detaining people with portraits of imprisoned citizens and posters like “Stop tortures” and “No to politically motivated imprisonments!”, according to RFE/RL.
Meanwhile, on the same day, around 150 people cooperated to protest in Almaty, the biggest city in Kazakhstan. They started a peaceful movement in the crossroad of Kabanbay batyr and Panfilov streets, nearby to the building of Opera and Ballet.
Among the protesters, there were parents and relatives of impressed people, who were the victims of politically motivated imprisoning. Gaini Erimbetova, Iskander Erimbetov’s mother, said in an interview to Azattyq, that her son was being tortured during the investigation. He was condemned to the allegation as a supporter of the Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former banker and opposition leader of the current president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Gaini Erimbetova was among detainees and freed by receiving a warning from the court. The other detained protesters sentenced for several days of imprisonment and administrative punishment.
Farida, one of the protesters in Astana, says they did not prevent or damage the city’s current life by protesting. All they wanted to speak out. “We just wanted to ask from European government officials to help to stop violating human rights in Kazakhstan. But the police without showing the order to detain pushed them into the military buses”, she told.
According to video streaming by Azattyq, people held the portraits of political imprisoned citizens. They asked for a freedom to civil activist Maks Bokayev and Mukhtar Djakishev, former head of national company Kazatomprom.
Mr. Bokayev was sentenced to 5 years for organizing illegal meetings against land reforms in 2016. Currently, he is beating off the punishment in Petropavlovsk.
Mr. Dzhakishev was detained by Kazakhstani special services on suspicion of committing criminal offenses while occupying his post as head of Kazatomprom. Over nine years of detention, Dzhakishev has been urgently hospitalized twice (in 2015 and 2016) in a public clinic in Almaty.
According to AzatNews, 8o protesters were detained and 7 activists were condemned to an administrative penalty in Almaty.
Ordinary citizens, who were in this crowd of protesters today, say that they decided to ask for help from European councils and ambassadors, not from the Kazakh Government. And they went out particular this day as Kazakh Parliament is hosting lawmakers from European Parliament this week and they arrived in Astana today.
As Radio Free Europe reported, Mukhtar Ablyazov proved that he was behind of all these protests in Kazakhstan. Political expert Amirzhan Kosanov in an interview to AzatNews told that, in some cases, Mr. Ablyazov was a provocateur of these protests.
“Mukhtar Ablyazov asked people of Kazakhstan to do the anti-government movement, but he did not provide the security guards, who monitor people not to get harmed during the meeting. Moreover, he was not able to organize a group of lawyers, who supposed to go to the court to protect the rights of detained citizens”, Mr. Kosanov said.
Protests waved lightly in Shymkent, Atyrau, Aktobe, Semey, and Oral. Most of the protesters went to their home right after talking to local administrative officials. In the end, two protesters in Oral were detained by police officers for insisting on their right to speak.
by Zholdas Orisbay
May 10, 2018 @ 20:10
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