ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Jailed Kazakh journalist Duman Mukhammedkarim has lost more than 20 kilograms and is suffering from low blood pressure as he entered the 20th day of a hunger strike to protest against his detention related to an interview he conducted with a government critic.
"He was barely able to come to the visitation room. He started the hunger strike on July 5, just drinking water only. Duman says he will not stop his hunger strike until all charges against him are dropped," Ghalym Nurpeisov, Mukhammedkarim's lawyer, said on July 25, adding that his client's weight has dropped to 60 kilograms from more than 80 before he embarked on the hunger strike.
Mukhammedkarim, whose Ne Deidi? (What Do They Say?) YouTube channel is very popular in Kazakhstan, was sent to pretrial detention last month on charges of financing an extremist group and participation in a banned group's activities.
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 extremist and banned in the country in March 2018.
Nupeisov has said Mukhammedkarim's condition was poor after he developed kidney problems following another hunger strike he held to protest a 25-day jail term he was handed in late May on a charge of violating regulations for mass gatherings.
That came just two days after he had finished serving a similar sentence.
If convicted on the new charge, Mukhammedkarim could be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison.
Rights watchdogs have criticized the authorities in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic for persecuting 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 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 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 cosmetic, as a crackdown on dissent has continued even after the president announced his "New Kazakhstan" program.