On Thursday, December 18, 1997, the Almaly district court in Almaty City sentenced Mr. Galym Abilsiitov (the co-chairman of citizens' movement "Azamat" (the main political opposition organization) to 15 days of imprisonment for "organizing an unsanctioned picket near the Parliament Building." He was arrested in the court and put in a special prison to serve his term. He stated he had begun a hunger strike to protest the antidemocratic actions of the authorities against him and various violations of human rights in Kazakstan. He further argued that the trial was far from fair.

Background

The November 30 picket was organized by the three co-chairmen of "Azamat": Abilsiitov, Mr. Pyotr Svoik (the former chairman of State Committee on Antimonopoly Policy, and current chairman of the Socialist Party of Kazakstan), and Mr. Murat Auezov (the former ambassador of Kazakstan in China). The three protested law enforcement practice in Kazakstan concerning the order and procedure of regulating the right to peaceful assemblies. They insisted that this basic human right, guaranteed by Kazakstan's Constitution, is practically non-existent in Kazakstan.

On the 2nd of December, the same Almaly district court fined Auezov 2480 tenge (about $35) for the same violation. The day before, Svoik and his wife were beaten in their hotel room in Bishkek. He had gone there to take part in a conference on democratic processes in Central Asia. It seems that this action was undertaken by the Kazakstani special service troops. Some men entered the hotel, went to the third floor, put on masks, broke the door down and beat Svoik with sticks. He suffered head injuries.

On December 19th, Svoik and Auezov made a political statement to protest violations of human rights and joined Abilsiitov's hunger strike. They demanded that Abilsiitov be released immediately and that the prosecutor's office take all measures to observe human in general.

After four days of hunger striking, Auezov lost 7.5 kg of weight; Svoik also had some problems with his health.

On the evening of December 23, Abilsiitov suffered a heart attack and was transported to one of the city hospitals. The next day, the Almaly district prosecutor wrote the protest concerning the decision of the Almaly district court.

At the same time in Uralsk, two young men, Mr.Ainur Kurmanov and Mr.Serghey Kolokolov, were under investigation on political grounds. They have been in prison since

September 18, 1997.

The accusations of "insulting the President," "terrorism" and "misleading underage people," as well as that of "organizing secret organizations," are, of course, groundless from the point of view of international human rights principles and practice. But in our post-Soviet reality, the authorities use every opportunity to punish any kind of opposition action. Several criminal cases were initiated against the leaders of the opposition and democratic activists. Thus we are worrying about the results of court hearings and the sentences. It seems that international human rights organizations could consider these young man as political prisoners, and try to influence the situation. The court proceedings are postponed and Mr.Kurmanov is holding hunger-strike for more than three weeks and now is very sick.

Information from the Kazakstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law.

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