8 people were convicted in Kazakhstan for correspondence on WhatsApp

The trial on “propaganda of terrorism” and “fomentation of strife” ended in Almaty. Initially, 9 people were on the dock. All of them were participants in the private WhatsApp chat, which discussed issues of faith and theological debates.

 According to the court, eight defendants were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. The fate of the ninth (Zhuldyzbek Taurbekov) is still undecided, since his case is set aside in a separate proceeding.

According to the lawyer Galim Nurpeisov, on August 5, the Kazakh public witnessed the commission of violence over the law.

“Our law enforcement system has been put in the format of criminal prosecution for dissent, for convictions, and, in particular, for the fact that a person decided to accept some religion according to his inner impulse,” Nurpeisov said at the press conference held in the office of the Kazakhstan’s Bureau for human rights last Wednesday.

Nurpeisov said that the defense side defeated completely at the trial the arguments brought forward by the investigation and the court of experts, however, the judge of the Almaly district court of Almaty Kairat Imankulov issued a decision on 30 pages, almost completely excluding it from the indictment.

“All these assumptions, all the undertakings of the judicial reform in Kazakhstan were crossed out precisely by this procedural document,” Nurpeisov emphasized. “That is, we have absolutely no right.”

The lawyer said that his clients created a chat on WhatsApp, where they discussed issues of faith and theology. By the way, the chat was created in December 2013. Five years later, this chat was somehow found in the National Security Committee. On August 29, 2018, investigator Lieutenant Colonel Rakhat Rustemov ordered an “expert analysis” of the texts distributed in this chat. For analysis, they took the text sent by Azamat Umbetaliev. This was a citation from a treatise of one Islamic theologian, legal scholar, member of several reputable religious organizations in Saudi Arabia, Salih al-Fawzan. It should be noted that the religious texts of al-Fawzan in Kazakhstan are not prohibited. But his “Book of Monotheism” is prohibited in Russia as extremist literature. The text analysis was completed almost a month later.

“Expert Gulnara Mukhataeva came to the conclusion that there are signs of fomentation of strife in this text,” says Nurpeisov. “But these texts are the works of the great scholars of Islam. This is a theoretical basis. However, the expert saw a fomentation in these texts. We got involved a specialist Rakhilya Karymsakova (Ph.D)”

Having studied the text of Umbetaliev, Dr. Karymsakova came to the conclusion that it does not contain any fomentation of religious strife or incitement to aggression or violence against members of other religions.

“Karymsakova said at the trial that we could be caught in an international scandal because some of our people, commenting on the texts of distinguished scholars studied at universities, say that the thoughts of these scholars stir up strife,” said Nurpeisov.

All 9 defendants were arrested on October 27, 2018. The National Security Committee accused Bolatbek Nurgaliev of creating a chat to promote terrorism and the ideas of Salafism, as well as to increase the number of supporters of this movement. The rest is accused in the propaganda of terrorism and inciting strife.

On February 27, 2019, the prosecutor transferred the case to the Almaly district court of Almaty. On March 12, the first trial took place.

On June 27, one of the defendants, 40-year-old Zhuldyzbek Taurbekov, was taken to the hospital due to heart problems. On July 6, he was again returned to the investigative isolation ward. However, that night his health condition became worse and Taurbekov was again hospitalized. However, on July 15 he was again returned to the isolation ward. At the trial on July 31, Taurbekov’s mother Asemgul Zhaurgasheva announced that her son was ill again and was taken to the hospital, but after four hours he was again returned behind the bars. Meanwhile, according to her, Zhuldyzbek’s health problems are very serious, he needs a heart transplant.

Due to regular hospitalizations, as well as due to the separation of his case into an individual proceeding, Taurbekov has not yet been sentenced. As for the rest, the judge Kairat Imankulov found Iskakov, Adilov, Umbetaliev, Suleimenov and Abdrakhimov guilty of “fomentation of strife” and sentenced them to five and a half years in prison. Nurgaliev, Mynbasov and Samatov received seven and a half years in prison.

“If they really incited strife and propagated terrorism through WhatsApp, then it turns out, logically, that WhatsApp should be prohibited today,” said the lawyer Nurpeisov.

As noted by the speakers of the press conference, both the investigation and the entire trial were full of violations of the defendants’ rights.

“This case shows that it is impossible to have convictions, freedom of religion is impossible, freedom of conscience and freedom of speech are also not possible,” Nurpeisov summed up. “We, of course, do not agree with this verdict and will appeal it. But, I want to appeal to all Kazakh citizens. What is happening in our courts is a disaster. We need to stop this lawlessness. If this is not opposed, then any person can be prosecuted, and no one can prove his innocence.”

Finally, the lawyer added that the international human rights group “Forum18” intends to appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee on this situation.

It is also worth noting that the Norwegian-Danish-Swedish initiative Forum18 is the organization that conducts detailed and accurate monitoring and analysis of violations of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Central Asia, Russia, the South Caucasus and Belarus. The employees of Forum18 followed the case of the convicted eight people from the beginning. As a result of its monitoring of this and other similar cases in Kazakhstan, Forum18 concluded that the National Security Committee and the police have access not only to social networks, but also to private messaging services such as WhatsApp.

“The employees of the National Security Committee and ordinary police officers monitor public and private messages on the Internet and in messaging services. People are often imprisoned or fined for exercising their freedom of religion or belief in religious messages distributed on the Internet, even if they do not contain calls to violate the human rights of others,” says website of Forum18.