Kazakh Woman Pickets Chinese Consulate, Demanding Husband's Release

A Kazakh woman demonstrated in front of the Chinese consulate in Almaty on January 14 to demand the release of her husband from house arrest in China's northwestern province of Xinjiang. Farida Qabylbek said her husband had been imprisoned for 13 years on espionage charges, then sent to a so-called reeducation camp and finally sentenced to house arrest. Authorities in Almaty warned her that her protest was illegal.