ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A Kazakh activist has been released from prison after a court replaced the remainder of his five-year sentence with a parole-like penalty amid an outcry by human rights groups over political prisoners in the Central Asian nation.
Askhat Zheksebaev, 50, was released from a penal colony in the town of Zarechny near Almaty on May 3 and brought by police to his home in Almaty, where he was greeted by dozens of his relatives, friends, and colleagues.
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The Qapshaghai City Court decided to replace Zheksebaev's prison term with a parole-like sentence on April 15. The ruling came into force on May 3.
Last month, the same court ruled to replace the remainder of prison terms with parole-like sentences for two other activists: Abai Begimbetov and Qairat Qylyshev.
Qylyshev was released on April 27, while Begimbetov's release is expected later in May.
The three men, along with a fourth activist, Noyan Rakhymzhanov, were sentenced to five years in prison each in October on charges of having links with the opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) and its affiliated Koshe (Street) party.
The activists, who were recognized as political prisoners by human rights organizations in Kazakhstan, pleaded not guilty and claimed during their trial that they only participated in peaceful protests and exercised their constitutionally protected rights.
Zheksebaev told those who greeted him after his release on May 3 that he still denies allegations he was involved in a "banned organization" and that he would continue with efforts to appeal a ruling and "prove that Koshe is not an extremist organiation."
The case sparked protests by rights defenders and opposition activists in Kazakhstan, who said the harsh sentences handed to the four activists do not go along with President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev's current campaign "to build a new democratic Kazakhstan," a move to distance himself from his predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbaev, who, along with his clan, lost control over the oil-rich nation following deadly anti-government protests in early January.
Many activists across the tightly controlled former Soviet republic have been handed prison terms or parole-like restricted freedom sentences in recent years for their involvement in the activities of DVK and the Koshe party and for taking part in the rallies organized by the two groups.
DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government. Kazakh authorities labeled DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) earlier this year criticized the Kazakh government for using anti-extremism laws as a tool to persecute critics and civic activists. Several hundred people have been prosecuted for membership in the Koshe party.
The Kazakh authorities have insisted there are no political prisoners in the country.