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Media Freedom

Kazakhstan’s Attempts to Address Disinformation and Media Freedom

On June 19, President Tokayev signed amendments to the law governing Kazakhstan's mass media. Meanwhile, public debate on foreign and domestic media that allegedly receive financing from abroad continues. While human rights activists focus on the principle of freedom of speech, political analysts are concerned about a string of disinformation campaigns attempting to destabilizing the country. The respective changes to legislative acts affect a wide range of issues. In particular, a new and broader concept of mass media has been introduced which includes internet resources. It is envisaged that a Unified Media Platform will be created to implement the state’s information policy, including grants for non-state media and accreditation of journalists to state bodies and organizations through a simplified accreditation procedure. In addition, the statute of limitations for claims brought against the media to refute information that does not correspond to facts and defames honor, dignity, and business reputation has been reduced to one year. Under the new law, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the right to deny accreditation to foreign journalists "in case of a threat to the national security of the Republic of Kazakhstan." A few months ago, the Ministry did not issue accreditation to 36 correspondents from Azattyk. The publication subsequently filed a lawsuit, and in April, the media outlet and the Ministry reached a mediation agreement. While the new law focuses mainly on foreign funded domestic media, experts cite recent examples of pressures on Kazakhstan’s society and authorities through disinformation campaigns that mostly originated from abroad. For instance, a week ago in Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities claimed an assassination attempt was made on Kazakhstani national Aidos Sadykov, the creator of a YouTube channel called Bәse. Sadykov and his wife Natalya were placed on the wanted list in Kazakhstan in October 2023 for “inciting social, national, clan, racial, class, or religious discord.” Their inclusion on the list is linked to the January 2022 coup attempt and riots, as well as their ties to controversial fugitive billionaire Mukhtar Ablyazov, who currently has judgements against him in U.S. and UK courts exceeding $5 billion. Ablyazov faced murder charges in Kazakhstan following the death of the CEO of a local bank that he later took over and reportedly defrauded. According to government authorities, Sadykov repeated Ablyazov's calls for violence surrounding the January 2022 coup attempt as well as the Mazhilis elections in March 2023, where the channel openly called for organizing riots. Furthermore, on the one-year anniversary of the January 2022 events, his Bәse channel gave instructions to overthrow the government in Kazakhstan, following the example of events in Ukraine. The four-minute video includes information on how to create coordination committees for regime change. Natalya Sadykova has also worked for the Respublika newspaper, allegedly funded by Ablyazov. Aidos Sadykov had previously served two years in Kazakhstan for hooliganism and fled to Kyiv in 2014. The alleged perpetrators of the attack on Sadykov, Meiram Karataev and Altai Zhakanbaev, are Kazakhstani citizens. Shortly after the purported assassination attempt, Natalya Sadykova accused Kazakhstan’s...

Rule of law

Tajikistan’s Former Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi Detained in Dushanbe

Several informed sources have confirmed that Tajikistan's former foreign minister Hamrokhon Zarifi had been detained in Dushanbe. It is reported that law enforcement agencies detained Zarifi on June 12th. Until June 16th he was held in Dushanbe's temporary Ministry of Internal Affairs detention center. Still, the source has no information about where he was transferred for further detention. There were also reports that he was released after interrogation. A source in Tajikistan's law enforcement agencies said that "the detention and interrogation are related to an economic crime that was committed during the construction of the Foreign Ministry building during Zarifi's time as head of the ministry." Hamrokhon Zarifi was arrested on the same day as Saidjafar Usmonzoda, a member of the Tajik parliament who was detained on charges of "attempting to seize state power." The Tajik opposition links Zarifi's detention to the Usmonzoda case. The authorities have not commented.

Economy

Kazakh MP Accuses Nazarbayev’s Relatives of Raiding

MP Yerlan Sairov believes that relatives of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Rakhat Aliyev and Kairat Satybaldy are involved in a business seizure. The parliamentarian demanded that the General Prosecutor's Office return the property to the affected businessmen, Kursiv has reported. During a meeting of the Mazhilis, the deputy stated that representatives of the Old Kazakhstan, taking advantage of their impunity, had initiated a series of business takeovers. "Such a system was formed by Rakhat Aliyev (Nazarbayev's former son-in-law) and his supporters," Sairov stated. Now, the victims have begun demanding the return of seized property. According to him, Nurlan Bimurzin and Megdat Kaliyev lost their oil business worth 170 million tenge ($369,000) in 2003. Zharkyn Kurentayev and Sholpan Karaneeva also "fell victim to the greed of the above-mentioned persons. The same group selected several vacation spots in the town of Konaev and the Altyn Bulak sanatorium in the Turkestan region," Sairov specified. Referring to the victims' posts on social networks, Sairov said that a group linked to Nazarbayev's nephew, Kairat Satybaldy, and his former sister-in-law, Gulmira, allegedly annexed the Hilton Hotel in Almaty and German citizen Robert Schumacher's construction company. The latter is now considered bankrupt. "The Prosecutor General's Office needs to take steps to protect the economic interests of the victims from representatives of the Old Kazakhstan and return the property," added Sairov. Rakhat Aliyev, the husband of Dariga Nazarbayeva from 1983 to 2007, was one of the most influential people in Kazakhstan in the early 2000s. In 2007, he was charged with kidnapping and preparation for a coup d'état and sentenced in absentia to 40 years; Aliyev fled to Austria, where he was arrested in 2014, and found hanged in a cell in Vienna in 2015. The official cause of death was suicide. In late February 2024, businessmen Bimurzin and Kaliyev announced that they had applied with the Prosecutor General's Office to reclaim assets they claimed to have transferred under duress to the former president's daughter, Aliya Nazarbayeva, in 2003. Nazarbayeva sued them for libel and lost Furthermore, earlier this year, businesswoman Sholpan Karaneeva reported that the Hilton Hotel was taken by Kairat Satybaldy and his supporters in 2021. After the nephew of the former president was behind bars, the transfer of his assets to the state, among them the hotel, was initiated. Kairat Satybaldy and his former wife, Gulmira Satybaldy, have been sentenced under articles on laundering money and the embezzlement of others property.

Rule of law

Women and Girls in Central Asia in Need of Protection from Violence

Central Asian Countries are seeing a new wave of violence against women and girls, and the fight against their long-standing powerlessness is just beginning. In 2023, the Women, Peace and Security Index (WPS Index), published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security, found Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan the most dangerous countries in Central Asia for women. Things were deemed slightly better in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The challenges faced by women in the region result from a combination of factors: the low number of women in government and law enforcement, women’s lack of financial independence, especially in rural areas, a distorted understanding of traditions across populations, and a mentality in society that often denies or covers up flagrant cases of injustice. The law is written in blood: the case of Kazakhstan According to WPS experts, Kazakhstan has progressed further than its neighbors toward equality. Still, according to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, 69 women and seven children died in 2023 in domestic conflicts alone. It is believed that, on average, at least 80 women die every year at the hands of those they live with; every day, the police receive hundreds of calls, while thousands of women need the help of specialized protection and support centers. According to the Prosecutor General, last year 150 women sustained severe injuries and 200 moderate injuries in marital conflicts, with another 4,000 suffering minor bruises. This year, however, marked a turning point for Kazakhstani society – more and more women are recording videos with marks from beatings, posting the videos on social media, and calling on the police to punish their abusers. Even high-profile domestic abusers can now be exposed. The trigger for these changes was the trial of former Nazarbayev-era Minister of the National Economy, Kuandyk Bishimbayev, who beat his wife, Saltanat Nukenova, to death last November. Following a live-streamed trial, this May, Bishimbayev was sentenced to 24 years in prison for her murder. Even during the Bishimbayev trial, Karina Mamash, the wife of a Kazakh diplomat in the UAE, went public with allegations about systematic abuse, calling on the state to help. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs urgently recalled her husband, Embassy Counselor Saken Mamash, who may be fired. Karina is now at home with her children while a criminal case has been opened against her husband. She has since reported threats from her husband's relatives. Also in May, Akmaral Umbetkalieva, a resident of Atyrau, alleged that her ex-husband, Rinat Ibragimov – the akim (mayor) of Makat District in Atyrau Region – had beaten her for eleven years and taken away their children. Ibragimov called the allegations slander. The month before, former Taldykorgan police chief, Marat Kushtybaev was sentenced to eleven years for raping a girl in his office in November 2023. Another headline from April was that a security guard at an Almaty bar who had been convicted of raping a girl at knifepoint would serve eight years in prison. The...

Human rights Social Rule of law

Turkmenistan President’s Visit Causes Havoc in Dashoguz

According to reports published by Turkmen.news, traffic was restricted in the Dashoguz region from June 2nd due to President Serdar Berdimuhamedov's arrival to open new power plants. The head of state came to the region on June 5th, but residents endured inconvenience for three days due to safety precautions. The restrictions also affected pedestrians. On the eve of the president’s visit, houses were painted, and extra police officers were placed on duty. As stated in the report, “From June 2nd, access to Tashkhovuz from distant districts was closed. On June 3rd, the ban also affected the residents of the areas directly adjacent to the city. No one was allowed into the regional center: it doesn’t matter if a person works there, studies, or needs treatment.” Also, residents' cars in the regional center were only allowed on the road if they were painted white and were manufactured after 2015. Pedestrians were forbidden to walk freely; on June 3rd, police officers from all etraps (territorial units) were called onto duty in Dashoguz and placed at posts on central roads every hundred meters. This lasted from 6 am until 10 pm. All houses facing the main road, where the presidential motorcade passed, were hastily painted white or covered with whitewash. The work was carried out very carelessly, with no one protecting windows and doors from paint, and traces of paint were left smeared on the ground.

Nazarbayeva

How Kazakhstan Is Cleansing Itself of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Legacy

“New Kazakhstan,” the term introduced by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev after the attempted coup d'état in January 2022, has also given birth to a thesis about “Old Kazakhstan." "Old Kazakhstan" is associated with the country's first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and his numerous relatives, who penetrated all spheres of life in the country. So, which former head of state's relatives fell into the clutches of justice? Gulmira Satybaldy Gulmira Satybaldy, former wife of Kairat Satybaldyuly, nephew of the first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is currently on trial in Almaty. She is accused of locking up her relative and business partner, Abai Zhunusov, for 165 days and, after intimidating him, transferring his shares in various companies to her proxies. Damages are estimated at $2.2 million (1.4 billion KZT). The guilty verdict, which few doubt will be passed, will not be her first. On 4 May 2023, the Astana court sentenced Gulmira Satybaldy to seven years' imprisonment for self-rule and kidnapping. A month later, on 30 June 2023, the Kyzylorda court sentenced her to eight years in prison for embezzlement and misappropriation of other people's property. The new, harsher sentence absorbed the previous punishment. Kairat Satybaldyuly Next is Kairat Satybaldyuly, a rather grim figure from the Nazarbayev clan. In the early noughties, on the now defunct Internet site “Aziopa,” which was attributed to Nazarbayev's former eldest son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev, Kairat Satybaldyuly was painted black with hints of his handcuffing his wife to the radiator and beating her. It also pointed to Kairat's presidential ambitions. Satybaldyuly is the son of Nursultan Nazarbayev's younger brother, Satybaldy, who died in 1981 in a car accident. According to Forbes Kazakhstan, during his uncle's presidency, Kairat was listed as one of the country's most influential business people with a fortune of 163 million dollars. According to Kazakhstan's media, the nephew of the former president of Kazakhstan was listed as the sole founder of the offshore firm Skyline Investment Company S.A., which owns over 24% of the shares of Kazakhstan's telecommunications company Kazakhtelecom. In addition to working in the civil service, including in the National Security Committee, he was deputy akim of Astana, and held senior positions in national companies. Detained in March 2022 on suspicion of abuse of power and large-scale embezzlement of funds by Kazakhtelecom JSC and Transport Service Center JSC, Satybaldyuly was held in custody until the trial. In court, Satybaldyuly reached a mediation agreement with the injured parties and paid 40 billion tenge ($89.5 million) in damages. He also entered into a procedural plea agreement. In September 2022, he was sentenced to six years in prison. The court ordered the confiscation of his property and banned him from working in the civil service for ten years. A submission was also made to the President of Kazakhstan to strip Satybaldyuly of the title “Major General of the National Security Bodies of Kazakhstan,” as well as the state orders “Kurmet” and “Parasat.” Despite reports that the Anti-Corruption Service of Kazakhstan is investigating criminal cases against Satybaldyuly involving tax...