On 5 May 2021, the first prosecutor of the Pavlodar region, Kusainov Zharkyn Kuanyshevich, drew up a new indictment against Maksut Appasov. He is being prosecuted in a politically motivated criminal case under Article 405 Part 2 ("participation in an extremist organisation"). "Grounds" for prosecution of Appasov Maksut:
1) Appasov Maksut has been repeatedly prosecuted under the politically motivated administrative Article 488 ("violation of the law on peaceful assemblies").
2) On 19 September 2020, Appasov Maksut expressed his demand for a change of power in a Telegram-chat "Правозащита Екибас Баянаул" ("Rights Defence Yekibas Bayanaul").
3) On 23 September 2020, Appasov Maksut asked in the "Правозащита Екибас Баянаул" ("Rights Defence Yekibas Bayanaul") Telegram-chat the place where the protest announced by the "DCK" and scheduled for 25 September 2020 will be held.
4) On 23 September 2020, together with other activists, he took part in a Zoom-conference with a human rights defender Lyudmyla Kozlovska. They discussed how to document human rights violations during the peaceful protest on 25 September 2020.
5) On 18 October 2020, Maksut Appasov expressed his dream about the change of power in the "Правозащита Екибас Баянаул" ("Rights Defence Yekibas Bayanaul") Telegram-chat.
Maksut Appasov is being prosecuted on political grounds for participating in peaceful protests, communicating with Lyudmyla Kozlovska and expressing demands for a change of power.
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)*
KP (Koshe Partiyasy)*
