Petropavlovsk Blogger Sentenced to 3.5 Years for Ethnic Discord

A court in Petropavlovsk has sentenced businessman and blogger Zhaslan Kopeev to three and a half years in a medium-security penal colony, Orda.kz reports.

He was found guilty of promoting destructive ideas and insulting the honor and dignity of people of different ethnicities.

The 38-year-old Petropavlovsk resident was prosecuted for inciting ethnic hatred. In his social media posts, Kopeev made critical remarks about both Russians and Kazakhs.

However, he claimed in court that he did not harbor ethnic hatred and had not insulted any particular group.

According to him, he was expressing opposition to the so-called “Russian world” ideology and considered his online activity a form of patriotic activism.

He did not plead guilty.

According to Judge Asem Janalina, Kopeev published videos on his social media accounts containing language that publicly insulted members of various ethnic groups. The judge emphasized that such appeals were accessible to a wide audience and violated constitutional protections against discrimination.

Kopeyev posted videos on his personal pages in which he used expressions aimed at publicly insulting the honor and dignity of representatives of different ethnic groups. The appeals were accessible to a wide range of Internet users. The Constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, nationality or religion. Therefore, the law provides for severe punishment. Everyone is equal before the law and the court. Zhaslan Kopeyev committed the crime as a conscious person,
the judge stated in the verdict.

In June 2023, Kopeev founded the organization “Kazakhstan Ultshyldar Partisy.”

The verdict has not yet entered into legal force. Kopeev has the right to appeal.

Original Author: Kristina Yusicheva