QOSTANAI, Kazakhstan -- A Kazakh activist who was sentenced along with the late prominent dissident poet Aron Atabek for helping organize protests that resulted in the death of a police officer in 2006 has been released after serving 16 years behind bars.
The administration of the UK-161/2 penal colony in the northern city of Qostanai told RFE/RL that Qurmanghazy Otegenov was released early on August 19.
His lawyer, Gulmira Quatbek, confirmed his client's release and said that Kazakh rights activists greeted Otegenov at the penitentiary's gates.
Otegenov, Atabek (aka Aron Edigeev), and two other activists were arrested in July 2006 after police clashed with homeowners in the Almaty suburb of Snagyraq over a court decision to demolish their houses because they were built "illegally."
A police officer was set on fire by the protesters and died in the hospital days later.
In 2007, the four were handed lengthy prison terms after a court found them guilty of masterminding the protests, which the activists and their supporters vehemently rejected.
The two activists were released from prison in 2020 after serving 14 years in prison.
While in prison, Atabek wrote a book, Heart Of Eurasia, which was critical of then-President Nursultan Nazarbaev. He was granted an early release in October 2021 due to health concerns.
He died in November while being treated in a Kazakh hospital for COVID-19.
As punishment for his book, which was published after it was smuggled out of prison, Atabek was moved from a penal colony to a cell-system penitentiary for two years. Atabek rejected a government pardon offer in 2012 that would have required him to admit guilt.