{"id":158776,"date":"2021-05-11T12:35:20","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T12:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=197203"},"modified":"2021-05-11T12:35:20","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T12:35:20","slug":"kazakh-activist-abishev-again-denied-early-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/05\/11\/kazakh-activist-abishev-again-denied-early-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Kazakh Activist Abishev Again Denied Early Release"},"content":{"rendered":"
QAPSHAGHAI, Kazakhstan — A court in Kazakhstan has again rejected an early-release request for ailing activist Kenzhebek Abishev, who has been recognized by domestic human rights organizations as a political prisoner.<\/p>\n
Abishev’s lawyer, Gulnar Zhuaspaeva, told RFE\/RL that the court ruled on May 11 that Abishev cannot be granted early release, again rejecting his argument for time off due to good behavior and concerns over his health.<\/p>\n
Last week, the chairwoman of the Aman-Saulyq Human Rights Foundation, Bakhyt Tumenova, said that Abishev’s condition was worrisome, as he suffers from multiple medical conditions and should be released as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
In mid-April, Abishev was rushed from prison to the hospital in Qapshaghai as his condition word due to a hunger strike that he started to protest the cancellation of his release in February on parole and prison conditions.<\/p>\n
Physicians then diagnosed Abishev with coronary heart disease. It is not clear at the moment if Abishev is still on his hunger strike.<\/p>\n
On February 1, the Qapshaghai court ruled that Abishev could be released on February 16, more than three years early, for good behavior while in prison, a procedure allowed by Kazakh law.<\/p>\n
However, the Almaty regional prosecutor’s office appealed the ruling at the very last moment, arguing that the 53-year-old activist’s good behavior in custody was not enough to secure his early release, since he still had more than three years to serve.<\/p>\n
The court then scrapped the move, leaving Abishev in prison.<\/p>\n
Abishev was sentenced to seven years in prison in December 2018 after he and two other activists were found guilty of planning a “holy war” because they were spreading the ideas of the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement. His prison term was later cut by eight months.<\/p>\n
Abishev pleaded not guilty, calling the case against him politically motivated.<\/p>\n
The DVK was founded by Mukhtar Ablyazov, an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government who has been living in France for several years.<\/p>\n
Ablyazov has been organizing unsanctioned anti-government rallies in Kazakhstan via the Internet in recent years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n