QONAEV, Kazakhstan -- The prosecution asked a court in Kazakhstan's southern town of Qonaev to sentence journalist Duman Mukhammedkarim, who is on trial for what he says are politically motivated charges of financing an extremist group and participating in a banned group's activities, to seven years in prison.
Mukhammedkarim's lawyer, Murat Zholshiev, told RFE/RL on July 29 that prosecutors also requested the court to ban Mukhammedkarim from conducting public activities for three years.
Around 40 people gathered in front of the court building to support Mukhammedkarim as they were unable to attend the trial since it is being held behind closed doors.
On July 18, Mukhammedkarim was transferred to a hospital as his health has dramatically deteriorated after he undertook several hunger strikes to protest the secrecy of the trial.
Mukhammedkarim, whose Ne Deidi? (What Do They Say?) YouTube channel is extremely popular in Kazakhstan, was sent to pretrial detention in June 2023 over an online interview he did with fugitive banker and outspoken government critic Mukhtar Ablyazov.
Ablyazov's Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement was declared extremist and banned in the country in March 2018. As Mukhammedkarim's trial started on February 12, he complained of being beaten by jail guards, prompting prosecutors to launch an investigation into the matter.
Mukhammedkarim's trial was then postponed until an unspecified date to allow for the investigation, which was shut down later due to a purported lack of evidence.
The proceedings resumed after that.
Domestic and international right organizations have urged the Kazakh authorities to drop all charges against Mukhammedkarim and immediately release him. Kazakh rights defenders have recognized Mukhammedkarim as a political prisoner.
Rights watchdogs have criticized the authorities in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic for persecuting dissent, but Astana has shrugged off the criticism, saying there are no political prisoners in the country.
The oil-rich Central Asian nation was ruled by authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev from before its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 until current President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev succeeded him in 2019.
Over the past three decades, several opposition figures have been killed and many jailed or forced to flee the country.
Toqaev, who broadened his powers after Nazarbaev and his family left the oil-rich country's political scene following the deadly, unprecedented antigovernment protests in January 2022, has promised political reforms and more freedoms for citizens.
However, many in Kazakhstan describe the reforms announced by Toqaev as cosmetic, and a crackdown on dissent has continued even after the president announced his "New Kazakhstan" program.