Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has pardoned noted sinologist Konstantin Syroyezhkin, who was released on parole in April after serving more than half of the 10-year prison term he was handed in 2019 on high treason charges.
Syroyezhkin said on September 11 that the Kazakh presidential commission on clemencies had approved his application for a pardon, which means his parole restrictions are now lifted.
The 68-year-old Syroyezhkin was sentenced on October 7, 2019.
Details of the charges were not made public, but some local media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, reported at the time that Syroyezhkin was accused of passing classified information to Chinese nationals for cash.
Some reports at the time of his conviction also said Syroyezhkin was stripped off his Kazakh citizenship and banned from residing in Kazakhstan for five years after his release.
Kazakh authorities were reluctant to officially announce his arrest more than five years ago, but questions about Syroyezhkin's whereabouts began circulating in the media after he failed to show up at two conferences in Kazakhstan.
Syroyezhkin was born in the southeastern Kazakh city of Almaty, which between 1927 and 1997 was the capital and remains its largest city.
In 1981, Syroyezhkin graduated from the Highest School of the Soviet KGB in Moscow with a specialization on China.
From 2006 until his arrest in 2019, Syroyezhkin worked as a leading expert and analyst at the presidential Institute for Strategic Research.
Syroyezhkin is the author of more than 1,000 analytical and research works on China and Kazakh-Chinese relations, written in Russian, Chinese, and English.
When current Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, who is a trained sinologist as well, served as prime minister, Syroyezhkin was his adviser on Kazakh-Chinese relations, including during talks on delimiting and demarcating the Kazakh-Chinese border.