Politically motivated criminal prosecution of human rights activist Nurgul KALUOVA from “BostandyQ Kz” movemen

11 May 2021

On 5 May 2021, the first prosecutor of the Pavlodar region, #KUSAINOV Zharkyn Kuanyshevich, drew up a new indictment against Nurgul KALUOVA. Nurgul KALUOVA, a mother of two children, has been held in the pre-trial detention facility for 5 and a half months now, while being prosecuted in a politically motivated criminal case under Article 405 Part 2 (“participation in an extremist organisation”).

“Grounds” for prosecution of Nurgul KALUOVA:

1) Nurgul KALUOVA was prosecuted under the politically motivated administrative Article 488 (“violation of the Law on Peaceful Assemblies”).

2) On 23 May 2020, Nurgul KALUOVA reposted a publication from the news channel “1612 INFO”: “The demands of the DCK are unchangeable!”

3) On 27 May 2020, Nurgul KALUOVA made a repost on Telegram with an appeal to join the “Kozhe” chat.

4) On 1 June 2020, Nurgul KALUOVA made a repost of the publication: “Let’s make the stage rally real”, with an appeal to go out to participate in a peaceful protest on 6 June 2020.

5) On 6 June 2020, she joined the “KP Pavlodar headquarters” Telegram-chat, where she discussed the protest which took place on 6 June and called for participation in peaceful protests.

6) On 19 June 2020, Nurgul KALUOVA in the “KP Pavlodar headquarters” Telegram-chat discussed the necessity of changing the regime and then dealing with issues of language development.

7) On 26 June 2020, she declared her intention to go out to participate in “Zhumatazh” (Friday evening marches).

8. On 4 July 2020, Nurgul KALUOVA wrote on Telegram that she wanted Mukhtar ABLYAZOV to become Prime Minister of Parliamentary Kazakhstan and attached a picture of him.

The other accusations are identical: discussion of the evening’s marches, protests, demands on the authorities, criticism of the authorities.

One of the charges is the most absurd:

9) On 23 September 2020, together with other activists, she took part in a Zoom-conference with the human rights defender Lyudmyla KOZLOVSKA. They discussed how human rights violations should be documented during the peaceful protest on 25 September 2020.

The prosecutor wrote that Lyudmyla KOZLOVSKA is a moderator of the group “ActivistsNotExtremists” and allegedly “M. ABLYAZOV’S right hand”.

In fact, Nurgul KALUOVA is being prosecuted on political grounds for having participated and called for participation in peaceful protests, for participation in As – Dulat AGADIL’S memorial ceremony in Talapker village in 2020, for revealing the truth to the youth about the so-called “listening state” of Tokayev through creative videos on TikTok.

The name of Nurgul KALUOVA and the human rights movement “BostandyQ Kz” are mentioned in the European Parliament resolution on the human rights situation in Kazakhstan dated 11 February 2021. The European Parliament urged to stop political persecution of human rights defenders.