Political court trials scheduled for 28 May 2021

Nur-Sultan:

1) A court trial in a politically motivated case under Article 405 Part 1 and Part 2 (“organisation and participation in the activities of an extremist organisation”) against a political prisoner and civil activists Askar KAIYRBEK will be held at 10:00.

Askar Kaiyrbek is being prosecuted for:

— The attempted registration of the peaceful opposition movement “Koshe Partiyasy”. Askar KAIYRBEK spoke about this on 10 May 2020 — before “Koshe Partiyasy” was illegally recognised as an «extremist organisation» by a secret decision of the judge Ruslan MAZHITOV.

— The appeal on his Youtube channel to the Kazakh-speaking audience to go out to peaceful «Subbotage» marches.

— The appeal to the international community in connection with the secret ban on “Koshe Partiyasy” and Kazakhstan’s violations of its international obligations.

— The appeal to the representatives of the USA, the EU, the UN, Canada, Switzerland and the UK to note that the activists were detained when they went to get a copy of the secret decision to ban “Koshe Partiyasy”.

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Shymkent:

2) A court trial in the politically motivated criminal case under Article 405 Part 2 («participation in an extremist organisation») against civil activists Zhanmurat ASHTAYEV, Yerlan FAIZULLAYEV and Nurzhan ABILDAYEV will be held at 11:00.

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A politically motivated criminal case under Article 296 Part 2 was also fabricated against Zhanmurat ASHTAYEV for the planted bag of marijuana in the yard of his house.

They are being prosecuted for calling for participation in peaceful protests, including for calling for an authorised peaceful protest on 31 October 2020 in Almaty, for criticising the authorities, expressing discontent about the socio-economic situation in the country and helping in a humanitarian aid campaign for the families of political prisoners.