(Adil Soz/IFEX) – On 31 July 2006, writer and opposition politician Zhasaral Kuanyshalin was sentenced at Medeu district court in Almaty for “public insult or other infringement upon the honour and dignity of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the use of the mass information media” under Article 318 of the Criminal Code […]
(Adil Soz/IFEX) – On 31 July 2006, writer and opposition politician Zhasaral Kuanyshalin was sentenced at Medeu district court in Almaty for “public insult or other infringement upon the honour and dignity of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the use of the mass information media” under Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The writer was sentenced to two years in prison but freed on amnesty.
The conviction stems from his October 2005 statement accusing President Nazarbayev of high treason. Kuanyshalin had also filed a formal report to the Office of the General Prosecutor seeking treason charges against the president. In his report, Kuanyshalin claimed the president had betrayed Kazakhstan by saying that “Kazakhs were historically a borderless nation, lacking statehood,” in his annual address to the nation.
The writer denied the charges.
