Watchdog

PETROPAVL, Kazakhstan -- Authorities in the northern Kazakh city of Petropavl have reportedly started the process of reopening a case into the alleged killing of a 25-year-old man by police in 2017.

Anatoly Reibant's mother, who has been on a hunger strike for 19 days demanding justice, told RFE/RL that officials on August 13 handed her a letter saying that the regional prosecutor's office had requested the Prosecutor-General's Office in Nur-Sultan, the capital, reopen the case.

Reibant, a father of two, died weeks after he sustained multiple facial fractures while in police custody.

His parents say he died after he was severely beaten by several police officers, while a court has ruled it a suicide.

The mother, Irina Reibant, started a hunger strike on July 25, four days after local law enforcement officials rejected a request to reopen the case of his death.

Police brutality in the tightly controlled Central Asian state has been an issue for decades.

The 61-year-old mother told RFE/RL that physicians who accompanied the officials at her home recommended she stop the hunger strike.

"I refused to stop the hunger strike, saying to them that I will continue it until the case is returned to a court and those responsible for my son's death are convicted," Reibant said.

She added that officials promised to grant her husband, who has a cancer condition, disability status and to provide him with an additional annual financial allowance.

ABINSK, Russia -- A court in southwestern Russia has handed a three-year prison term to a Jehovah's Witness amid an ongoing crackdown on the religious group that has been banned in Russia since 2017.

The Abinsk district court in the Krasnodar region sentenced Vasily Meleshko on August 12 after finding him guilty of taking part in the activities of an "extremist organization."

Meleshko admitted to being a Jehovah's Witness but rejected the charge.

Yaroslav Sivulsky of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses told RFE/RL that Meleshko and his wife had been members of the local parish for 30 years and that the authorities had never caused any problems for them before.

The United States has condemned Russia's ongoing crackdown on Jehovah's Witnesses and other peaceful religious minorities.

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Russia's Crackdown On Jehovah's Witnesses Continues, With At Least Seven More Sentenced

For decades, the Jehovah's Witnesses have been viewed with suspicion in Russia, where the dominant Orthodox Church is championed by President Vladimir Putin.

The Christian group is known for door-to-door preaching, close Bible study, rejection of military service, and refusal to mark national and religious holidays or birthdays.

Since the faith was outlawed, many Jehovah's Witnesses have been imprisoned in Russia and Crimea, which was seized by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014.

According to the group, dozens of Jehovah's Witnesses have either been convicted of extremism or have been held in pretrial detention.

The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center has recognized dozens of Jehovah's Witnesses who've been charged with or convicted of extremism as political prisoners.