Activist Ashkat Zheksebaev, who spent a year in a maximum-security pre-trial detention center in Kazakhstan, has been sentenced to five years in prison for Facebook posts and Telegram messages that encouraged people to join an opposition party and attend rallies.
Mr. Zheksebaev was convicted of creating and participating in an “extremist group” and has been forbidden from engaging in political activities, a decision he’s now appealing. The Clooney Foundation for Justice, whose TrialWatch Initiative monitored his trial, calls on the Almaty City Court of Appeals to reverse Mr. Zheksebaev’s conviction and order his acquittal.
The Koshe Party, which Mr. Zheksebaev encouraged people to support, has been characterized by the European Parliament as a peaceful opposition movement, however, Kazakhstan has branded it “extremist” and banned the party.
KAZAKHSTAN is one of the countries where freedom of expression is hard to come by, yet journalists in that country are living a life of intimidation from the country's security forces.
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