ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Kazakh journalist Duman Mukhammedkarim has been sent to pretrial detention for at least two months on a new charge instead of being released as expected after serving out a 25-day jail term on a charge of violating regulations for public gatherings last month.
Mukhammedkarim's lawyer, Ghalym Nurpeisov, told RFE/RL that his client was transferred to a pretrial detention center at around 11 p.m. on June 22, an hour after a court ruled that the journalist must be held in custody on charges of financing extremism and being involved in the activities of a banned group.
The charges against Mukhammedkarim stem from his online interview with the fugitive banker and outspoken critic of the Kazakh government, Mukhtar Ablyazov, whose Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement was labeled as extremist and banned in the country in March 2018.
Nupeisov said earlier that Mukhammedkarim’s health is currently poor as he developed kidney problems after a hunger strike he recently held to protest his arrest.
If convicted, Mukhammedkarim may face up to 12 years in prison.
Mukhammedkarim was handed a 25-day jail term on a charge of violating regulations for public gatherings in late May, just two days after he had finished serving a similar sentence.
Those charges stemmed from a video on Mukhammedkarim's YouTube channel that called on Kazakhs to defend their rights and his online calls for residents in the Central Asian country's largest city, Almaty, to rally against the government's move to introduce visa-free entry to Kazakhstan for Chinese citizens.
Rights watchdogs have been criticizing authorities in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic for the persecution of dissent, but Astana has shrugged the criticism off, saying there are no political prisoners in the country.
Kazakhstan was ruled by authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev from 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 have been jailed or forced to flee the country.
Toqaev, who broadened his powers after Nazarbaev and his family left the oil-rich nation's political scene following unprecedented deadly anti-government protests in January 2022, has promised political reforms and more freedoms for citizens.
However, many in Kazakhstan, consider the reforms announced by Toqaev, to be cosmetic, as a crackdown on dissent has continued even after the president announced his "New Kazakhstan" program.