Skip to main content

Eurasianet

Main Menu

  • Regions
  • Topics
  • Media
  • About
  • Search
  • Newsletter
  • русский
  • Support us
X

Caucasus

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia

Central Asia

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

Conflict Zones

Abkhazia
Nagorno Karabakh
South Ossetia

Eastern Europe

Belarus
Moldova
Russia
The Baltics
Ukraine

Eurasian Fringe

Afghanistan
China
EU
Iran
Mongolia
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
X

Environment

Economy

Politics

Kazakhstan's Bloody January 2022
Kyrgyzstan 2020 unrest

Security

Society

American diplomats in Central Asia
Arts and Culture
Coronavirus
Student spotlight
X

Visual Stories

Podcast
Video

Blogs

Tamada Tales
The Bug Pit

Podcasts

EurasiaChat
Expert Opinions
The Central Asianist
X
You can search using keywords to narrow down the list.
Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan: Court Dubs Opposition Movement Extremist

Disseminating or linking to material produced by the DVK could be punishable by stiff prison sentences.

Mar 13, 2018

A court in Kazakhstan has ruled to designate an opposition political movement led by fugitive business Mukhtar Ablyazov an extremist organization.

In considering a petition from the General Prosecutor’s Office on March 13, the Yesil district court ruled that Ablyazov was using the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan to incite the violent overthrow of the government.

Ablyazov fled the country in the late 2000s and is wanted on multiple charges that he argues are politically motivated. In 2017, he was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in jail for allegedly embezzling and spiriting $7.5 billion out of the country. Following his release from a French jail in 2016 after a court struck down an order to extradite him to Russia to face fraud charges, Ablyazov stated that Kazakhstan’s government could only be changed “through force, since Nazarbayev will not leave [power] voluntarily.”

Recently, Ablyazov has taken to Facebook to do much of his activism. He regularly produces online videos in which he criticizes the government of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whom he has described as the chief of a criminal syndicate.

The General Prosecutor’s Office argued that Ablyazov’s addresses created a “negative image of the authorities and are stirring protest sentiments.”

Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, or DVK in its Russian-language initials, is an idea repurposed from the political party that was created in 2001, when Ablyazov was still based in Kazakhstan. The movement is not registered in Kazakhstan. 

The court’s decision makes it unlawful to disseminate Ablayzov’s video addresses through media, social media and private messengers. Any public show of support of DVK will in principle now be subject to prosecution.

Extremist activity is punishable in Kazakhstan with prison sentences of between two and 17 years.

Ablyazov responded to the court ruling with a statement denying he had ever called for violence and arguing that “Nazarbayev was in a state of terror and panic over the pace of DVK’s development.”

“His only reaction could be to stop DVK by means of repression,” he wrote on Facebook.

There is little evidence, however, to support Ablyazov’s claim that his movement is gathering any useful degree of momentum inside Kazakhstan. His videos typically draw views in the thousands and occasional appeals to supporters to muster for protests usually go unheeded.

Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.

Related

Aeroflot poised to return to Kazakhstan despite legal risks
Why Central Asian journalists hide their names
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan ban food exports amid wild winter inflation

Popular

Azerbaijani embassy in Iran comes under deadly attack
Heydar Isayev
Aeroflot poised to return to Kazakhstan despite legal risks
Fight or flight: Tbilisi and Kyiv caught in another round of tensions
Nini Gabritchidze

Eurasianet

  • About
  • Team
  • Contribute
  • Republishing
  • Privacy Policy
  • Corrections
  • Contact
Eurasianet © 2023