On 5 April 2021, a senior investigator of the Investigative Division of the Almaty City Police Department, Kazhibayev G.S., issued a subsumption of a suspect Kairat Klyshev. Kairat Klyshev was politically prosecuted under Article 182 Part 1 ("establishment of an extremist group") and Article 405 Part 2 ("participation in the activities of an extremist organisation").
"Grounds" for the political criminal case:
1) Kairat Klyshev "In December 2019, together with his associates, took an active part in changing the name of the organisation (DCK) and its transformation into "Koshe Partiyasy", where he continued his active participation in the unregistered movement "Koshe Partiyasy". This fact of the name change from “DCK” to “Koshe Partiyasy” was established by the Yesil District Court on 19 May 2020.
2) On 9 December 2019, a video was published on the Youtube channel of "Koshe Partiyasy". In this video Zhanara Akhmetova (at the time, the coordinator of the "DCK" headquarters), civil activists Askhat Zheksebayev and Kairat Klyshev "touched upon the topics of her joining the opposition and the reasons for her persecution".
3) On 2 January 2020, a video with congratulations was published on Youtube channel "Koshe Partiyasy". In this video, on 31 December 2019, Kairat Klyshev and other activists were conducting a live broadcast with Mukhtar Ablyazov and wished him a happy new year.
4) On 5 March 2020, a video, taken at the house of civil activist Ninagul Dzhumaniyazova, was published on the Youtube channel "Mukhtar Ablyazov". The video shows Kairat Klyshev and other activists speaking to Mukhtar Ablyazov via video conference.
5) On 18 March 2020, a video of Kairat Klyshev "chanting “activists not extremists, hands off activists”" was published on Askhat Zheksebayev's Facebook page.
6) On 23 May 2020, a video was published on Askhat Zheksebayev's Facebook page where Kairat Klyshev "calls on the international community to condemn the actions of the authorities and also to join their telegram chat “Koshe Partiyasy”".
7) Kairat Klyshev supports “Koshe Partiyasy” opposition movement and calls for joining their movement.
8. Kairat Klyshev "On a regular basis took part in unsanctioned rallies, actions, pickets for which he was repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility", namely: on 18 June 2020 (15 days of arrest), on 2 July 2020 (5 days) for "disobeying a police officer", on 22 August 2020 (8 days).
9) "Being oppositional in his political convictions and an adherent of extremist ideology, having a negative attitude towards the existing constitutional system and the system of government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, ......, "planned the creation and management of an extremist group", with the aim of changing the constitutional system of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the political system of society”.
10) He was given a "leading role" in the "extremist group".
11) Kairat Klyshev "Intentionally, persistently and tendentiously offered to join and unite in the ranks of "Koshe Partiyasy", expressing dissatisfaction with the social and political situation in the country, as well as expressing negative assessment of the current government, law enforcement agencies, calling for actions aimed at changing the government, resignation of the Government".
12) On 19 July 2020, he came to Astana to participate in Asar - collective help for building a house for the family of the murdered Dulat Agadil. Moreover, the investigator himself writes "Asar".
Further the investigator writes that together with other activists Kairat Klyshev rented a flat in Astana, where they conducted meetings with activists in the capital, discussed the involvement of new supporters and future protests.
13) On 6 June 2020, a video was published in which Kairat Klyshev states that he is going to a rally.
14) He participated in a Telegram chat discussing upcoming rallies and where D. Aspandiyarova's "financial report on fundraising" was kept.
In fact, Kairat Klyshev is being politically persecuted for exercising his constitutional rights: he participated in peaceful protests (for which he has already received, formally, illegal administrative penalties), called to join the "Koshe Partiyasy" peaceful opposition movement and discussed the upcoming peaceful protests. The investigator explicitly writes that he is an opposition activist for her political beliefs, which is not in fact illegal, but in this case demonstrates the real reason for her political persecution.
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The secret decision of the Yesil court on banning "Koshe Partiyasy" has not been published. "Koshe Partiyasy" and the “DCK” are two different peaceful opposition movements. In its
resolution of 11 February 2021, the European Parliament has condemned the abuse of anti-extremism legislation by the Kazakhstani authorities to persecute supporters of the peaceful opposition movements “DCK” and “Koshe Partiyasy” and called on the Kazakhstani authorities "to drop politically motivated charges and end all forms of arbitrary detention, reprisals and harassment against human rights activists, religious organisations, civil society organisations, trade unions, journalists and political opposition movements".
We call on the US, the EU, the UK and Canada to impose personal sanctions on: the head of the National Security Committee, Karim Massimov; the General Prosecutor, Gizat Nurdauletov; and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Yerlan Turgumbayev.
DCK (Democratic Choice of Kazakhtstan opposition movement)*
