October 16 Press Conference on Lawlessness in Talgar: Organizers Detained

On October 16, a press conference dedicated to the "lawlessness in the Talgar district" was supposed to be held in Almaty. But a couple of hours before the event, two organizers were detained by the police, Orda.kz reports.

Zharkyn Kurentayev, a public figure and one of the founders of the "Victims of Old Kazakhstan" movement, organized the press conference about Talgar district officials' arbitrariness. On the morning of October 16, the police detained him and took him to the station. The police came to other organizers.

We have cancelled the press conference, they are taking me to the police,Zharkyn Kurentayev managed to tell the Orda.kz journalist. 

Human rights activist Andrey Grishin from the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights said that lawyer Alnur Ilyashev, the second organizer of the press conference, was also detained without explanation.

Alnur Ilyashev just wrote to me that he was detained. I suspect that other speakers were detained as well. The reason for the detention is not yet known, said Andrey Grishin.

We requested an official comment from the Almaty Police Department to clarify the reason for the activists' detention.

Residents of Talgar District were supposed to speak at the press conference about local authorities' illegal actions. In particular, they accuse representatives of the Akimat of assaulting a local resident, illegal detentions, intimidation, and even possible involvement in torching of houses.

The increased attention to the Talgar district is due to the high-profile case of 16-year-old Sherzat Polat. Yesterday, the police held a press conference in Qonayev, where they demonstrated a video recording of the conflict that preceded Sherzat's death.

Original Author: Nikita Drobny