Jailed Kazakh Rights Activist Launches Blog

The front page of Zhovtis's blog

Jailed Kazakh human rights defender Yevgeny Zhovtis has begun publishing a blog on the Internet, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Zhovtis was the director of the Almaty-based Kazakh Bureau for Human Rights. He is serving a four-year jail term in a labor camp in East Kazakhstan Oblast for his involvement in a deadly traffic accident last year.

His supporters and human rights organizations have criticized his sentence, which they say Kazakh authorities ordered in retaliation for Zhovtis's human rights activities.

His blog is blocked in Kazakhstan and only available via a proxy server.