Human Rights Defender Toregozhina Detained and Released

In Almaty, Kazakh human rights activist Bakhytzhan Toregozhina was questioned in connection with the banned organization “Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan” (DVK)*, Orda.kz reported.

On the morning of August 17, Toregozhina wrote on Facebook that she had been detained and taken to the Almaly police department. 

Hours later, she reappeared, calling the incident persecution for her rights work.

The authorities don’t know what else to invent to intimidate me and force me into silence! I was questioned as a witness in a criminal case on a banned organization under Article 405 of the Criminal Code, without a single question asked about the case! They took me out through the back yard of the police station and forcibly drove me back home, not letting me meet the people who came to support me! What is happening in our country? Toregozhina wrote.

Her lawyer, Galym Nurpeisov, said she was detained around 7 a.m. in Gandhi Park on the pretext of a supposed rally. After the questioning, she was delivered home. Nurpeisov claims he was pushed out of the police building by officers.

DVK* is banned in Kazakhstan as an extremist organization, but international groups consider it a peaceful opposition movement.

Toregozhina is one of the country’s most prominent human rights defenders. She leads the organization “Ar.Rukh.Haq,” has spent decades monitoring rights violations, and defends political prisoners.

In July 2025, a court in Almaty fined her 78,000 tenge over a post about imprisoned activist Marat Zhylanbayev. Police accused her of spreading false information, though Toregozhina said Zhylanbayev had declared a hunger strike and his health had sharply deteriorated.

In 2023, Toregozhina received the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award for her long-standing work defending human rights and documenting victims of the January events.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov

*DVK, led by exiled banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, was designated extremist and outlawed by a Kazakh court in March 2018.