Watchdog

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Kazakh authorities have rejected a request by the family of Zamanbek Nurqadilov to launch a new probe into the 2005 death of the opposition leader, which was ruled a suicide even though the government critic was found shot three times.

Nurqadilov's son, Qairat Nurqadilov, told RFE/RL on April 25 that the request filed last month with the Prosecutor-General's Office was denied despite inconsistencies in the original findings.

Zamanbek Nurqadilov was once mayor of the oil-rich country's largest city, Almaty, and chairman of the Emergency Situations Agency before he turned into a fierce critic of then-President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his government in 2004.

He was found dead with two bullets in his chest and one in his head at his home in Almaty in November 2005.

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"There was a hope that the case will be reviewed and sent for a new investigation. But they [prosecutors] concluded that it was a suicide, and that the case cannot be reviewed since they said it had been properly investigated," Qairat Nurqadilov said.

"I don't agree with that assessment as first, a person cannot shoot themselves to death three times. And secondly, a lot of pressure was put on me at the time to make me believe it was a suicide," he said, adding that he did not know where to turn to next to find out definitively what happened to his father.

Nurqadilov’s death occurred around the same time as a series of suspicious deaths of opposition politicians and journalists.

Among them were the deaths of another opposition leader, former government minister and Kazakh Ambassador to Russia Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, and two associates who were found shot dead near Almaty in February 2006, three months after Nurqadilov's death.

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Both politicians were interviewed in July 2004 by prominent independent journalist Askhat Sharipzhanov, who was found later the same day as the interview beaten and unconscious with a fractured skull. He died several days later in the hospital.

Police said Sharipzhanov had been hit by a car, but friends and colleagues said his injuries suggested he had been struck in the head and hands before being hit by a vehicle.

Sarsenbaiuly's killing was officially declared to have been motivated by personal enmity. A former chief of staff of parliament, Erzhan Otembaev, was convicted of ordering the slaying and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

However, in 2013, Otembaev's sentence was annulled after the authorities announced that the case had been sent for review based on new evidence they said indicated that Rakhat Aliev, Nazarbaev's former son-in-law, had ordered the killing.

Aliev, who was deputy chief of the National Security Committee when the slaying took place and became an outspoken opponent to Nazarbaev in 2007, was in self-imposed exile in Europe at the time.

Aliev was later arrested by Austrian officials at the request of the Kazakhstan authorities, who accused him of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of two Kazakh bankers.

In February 2015, Aliev was found hanged in a Vienna jail.

Austrian officials ruled Aliev's death a suicide, but many in Kazakhstan believe he was killed while in Austrian custody.

With reporting and writing by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service and Merhat Sharipzhan, the brother of Askhat Sharipzhanov

MINSK -- The Minsk-based Vyasna human rights center says two people associated with it have gone on trial along with a group of eight others for their activism against the regime of authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The group said on April 25 that the trial behind closed doors had begun against one of its coordinators, Marfa Rabkova, and a volunteer, Andrey Chapyuk, along with the other activists.

In all, Rabkova faces an array of 13 charges for allegedly organizing and encouraging activities that violated civil order, publicly calling for activities that threatened national security, creating an extremist formation, running an extremist organization, inciting social hatred, hooliganism, vandalism, damaging private property, and for illegal activities with the use of explosives.

If found guilty on all charges, Rabkova could be imprisoned for up to 20 years. Chapyuk is charged with taking part in mass disorder and vandalism.

Other defendants include anarchists Akikhira Hayeuski-Khanada, Alyaksandr Frantskevich, Alyaksandr Kazlyanka, anti-racist Andrey Marach, and activists Paval Shpetny, Alyaksey Halauko, Danil Chulya, and Mikita Dranets. They all face charges similar to ones faced by Rabkova.

Rabkova, who has rejected all of the allegations as politically motivated, was arrested in September 2020 and initially charged with helping prepare mass disorder, a charge that carries a prison sentence of up to three years.

Police in Belarus have violently cracked down on protesters, with thousands of detentions following a disputed presidential election in August 2020 that demonstrators and opposition figures say was rigged to extend Lukashenka's 26-year rule.

There have been credible reports of torture and ill-treatment by security forces, and several people have died.

Many of Belarus's opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, while Lukashenka, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1994, has refused to negotiate with the opposition.

The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote, and imposed sanctions on him and his allies, citing election fraud and the police crackdown, which has also been aimed at press freedoms.