Kazakh human rights activist sentenced to four years

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KAZAKHSTAN — On September 3, an Almaty Region court sentenced Yevgeny Zhovtis, director of the Kazakh Bureau of Human Rights and Due Process, to four years imprisonment for the unpremeditated killing of a pedestrian. The defence believes that the verdict was unjustifiably harsh, and insists that the case was politically motivated, an assessment shared by international human rights organisations including the OSCE, Freedom House and Human Rights Watch. The incident took place on July 26. An automobile Zhovtis was driving struck 34-year-old Kanat Moldavaev, a pedestrian. Moldavaev died before the arrival of the ambulance that Zhovtis called. Analysis of the scene at that time established that Zhovtis was sober and driving under the speed limit.

A week later, however, reports in independent Kazakh media said investigators were coming under pressure directly from Astana, and that the results of the preliminary analysis might be revised, which ultimately happened. A new analysis found a small amount of alcohol in Zhovtis' blood, while the deceased, despite claims by his neighbours that he had “partaken” heavily, was found to have been sober.

Police then charged Zhovtis with the death of an individual due to recklessness. Zhovtis insists that he could not have avoided the accident because he was blinded by oncoming headlights and saw the pedestrian too late.

The trial lasted two days. His attorney said the court did not acknowledge a single objection made by the defense, and that the conviction had been written before the decision was handed down. “It was read out literally 30 minutes after the judge went into the deliberation room. The verdict was written on five pages. Physically he could not have produced it in that time, let alone written it by hand,” the lawyer said.

“'Shutting down' Zhovtis was revenge, punishment, intimidation of those who do not defer to the current authorities,” said human rights activist and journalist Sergei Duvanov.

OSCE Office of Human Rights and Democratic Institutions official Tom Rymer told Azattyk Radio that the OSCE monitoring group noted a series of violations of due process that cast doubt on the conduct of the trial and the investigation that preceded it.

[KazTAG.kz, ZonaKZ.net, Time.kz, HRW.org, azattyq.org]