Court in Oral Dismisses Case Against Akim Candidate Zhapkarkulov

A court in Oral has reviewed the case of public activist Jumabek Zhapkarkulov, Orda.kz reports.

Independent observers accused the former akim candidate of defamation.

The conflict began after the July elections for akim of the Kaztalovsky district. Observers from the NGO Jariya reported falsifications, including forged signatures and applications for remote voting.

These irregularities led to the dismissal of the election commission. The head of Jariya shared the details on Facebook, a post that drew criticism from Zhapkarkulov, one of the candidates.

He left a comment that became the basis for the lawsuit:

Such mankurts, shameless people, hiding behind the search for justice, deprive the people of independence. Under the guise of ‘Jariya,’ they are leading to slavery, Zhapkarkulov wrote.

“Mankurt” is a Central Asian cultural insult that comes from Chingiz Aitmatov’s novel. It describes someone who has lost their memory, roots, and identity, and is used today to mean a person who betrays their culture or nation, blindly serving others.

The NGO’s leader said the words were offensive to him personally and to all of the group’s observers.

In court, the candidate denied wrongdoing:

I simply expressed my opinion. The observer speaks Russian, and I called that a sign of mankurtism, Uralskaya Nedelya quoted Zhapkarkulov as saying.

A psycho-linguistic examination concluded the comment contained no insults and did not damage the honor or reputation of the organization.

The court dismissed the case due to a lack of evidence of an offense.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov