In Turkestan region, a trial is being held behind closed doors, clearly indicating that the same procedures apply in New Kazakhstan of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as in Old Kazakhstan of Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Murat Baidauletov, a resident of the city of Lenger, a civil activist with a disability of the 3rd group, is on trial in the court of Tolebi district.
As noted above, the process takes place behind closed doors, so it’s not possible to find out exactly what is happening there.
It’s only known that Baidauletov is charged with one of the political articles of the Criminal Code, namely Article 405 (“Organization and participation in the activities of a public or religious association or other organization after a court decision to ban their activities or liquidate them in connection with their extremism or terrorism”).
According to the prosecution, Baidauletov recorded two video messages in March of this year (one in Russian and the other in Kazakh) and posted them on social networks.
In these videos, Baidauletov, addressing the European community, stated that during the January events, on the orders of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, many Kazakh citizens were killed. As ACCA has already reported, in those tragic days, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev gave the order to shoot at protesters without warning. As a result, only according to official data, 238 people died.
Kazakh human rights activists have repeatedly appealed to European deputies to conduct an independent investigation into the January tragedy and bring President Tokayev to justice.
Activist Murat Baidauletov said the same thing in his video messages. He urged residents of European countries to put pressure on the authorities to initiate personal sanctions against Tokayev.
It was these two videos that formed the basis of the accusation. Although Murat Baidauletov doesn’t agree with the charges brought against him. According to him, in two videos there was no mention of organizations or movements banned in Kazakhstan, but only criticism of the President.
It should also be noted that Baidauletov already has a political criminal record. In November last year, he was sentenced to 1 year of restricted freedom and 100 hours of forced labor on charges of participating in the activities of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan and Koshe Partiyasy opposition movements which are banned in Kazakhstan. Allegedly, he expressed his support for these organizations during a live broadcast on Facebook.
It’s worth recalling that in Kazakhstan, under the first President Nursultan Nazarbayev, articles of the Criminal Code were actively applied, prohibiting discrediting the honor and dignity of Nazarbayev. Under the pretext of this article, those who simply dared to criticize the first President were tried. And apparently, Nazarbayev’s henchman and successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, decided to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor.
