Zharkyn Kurentayev: “Someone Really Wants No Attention toward Talgar District's Lawlessness"

On October 16, a press conference in Almaty was to be held. Its topic concerned the "Lawlessness in The Talgar District." It was planned to discuss cases of arbitrariness and violations by officials. A couple of hours before the event, its main organizer, public figure Zharkyn Kurentayev, was "detained."

Zharkyn Kurentaev spoke about this with Orda. 

 Zharkyn, tell us about what happened.

— I was opening the gate to head out for the press conference, and three people in civilian clothes were waiting for me at the entrance. Two came from the side; one got in front. One showed me his ID and said: "We have an order to bring you in; come with us." I realized that I couldn't upset them, and I responded accordingly.

We drove through the village of Besagash, started "putzing around," and drove through the Talgar district from village to village. Right after the news about my arrest came out on Orda.kz, one received a sequence of several messages on his phone. Apparently, someone gave them an order, and they immediately took me back. They dropped me off, apologized, and left.

Did they explain?

— No. The concept of "bringing someone in" is in four legal documents: the law on enforcement proceedings and the status of judicial law enforcers, the Civil Code, the Code of Administrative Offenses, and the Criminal Code. They did not specify which of them they were acting under. When I asked them about it, they said I would be told later. They also did not tell me which specific department they planned to take me to. We drove, meandering around, maybe avoiding cameras.

Did the people who detained you somehow demonstrate their affiliation with law enforcement agencies? Did you look at the ID they showed you?

— The people who detained me definitely were not affiliated with the Almaty City Police Department. I live in the Talgar District, so city police officers would not have come. They could have been officers from the Talgar District; it's hard to say. I didn't look at the ID — it all happened so quickly. I read the surname, first name, and rank out loud but didn't remember it. Only later, when they took my cell phone from me in the car, did I regret not taking a photo of the ID.

We contacted the Almaty Police Department because we thought you had been detained after you arrived for the press conference.

- Yes, that's what everyone really thought.

Was the press conference held?

- Yes. When I returned home, I immediately called the other press conference participants. They had already started without me. From this, I conclude that this incident was organized by someone specifically to disrupt the press conference.

KMBHR informed us that lawyer Alnur Ilyashev was also detained, but he later refuted this. What happened?

Alnur was not detained. KMBHR mistakenly thought that he was detained, too. All the other speakers, except for me, Alnur Ilyashev, and one woman who was supposed to talk about the assault at the Akim meeting with residents of the village of Besagash, participated in the press conference. I believe that we were the key speakers.

Did you notice anything strange before and immediately after this incident?

— After we published an announcement about holding a press conference on the KMBHR website, a certain Murat, a member of the public council of the Talgar district, suddenly started calling me.

He called several times, said it was inconceivable to cover the events one-sidedly, and so on. After the press conference, the speakers who were present told me that about ten people from Talgar had come. Five of them entered the hall, and the rest left when lawyer Asylbek Karayev warned them about the liability for provocative actions.

So, five people silently sat in the hall and remained there until the end of the press conference; only one asked a question. I think these are signs that someone in Talgar did not want our press conference to occur. By the way, among these people was the very Murat who had called me earlier.

Have you noticed any signs of surveillance?

- No, I didn't notice. Even if I had been followed, I wouldn't be able to tell because I usually don't look around. I just go about my business.

So the police have no increased interest in you?

— I don't want to focus on myself personally because I represent civil society. We must understand that we must act in the interests of the entire society. I'm not all that worried — after the parliamentary elections, where I was a candidate, I was taken to the police station several times under different pretexts. This time, I was taken aback but not surprised.

Have other speakers received any threats or suspicious calls?

— According to Asylbek Karayev, he received a call from the Almaty Region Internal Policy Department — they wanted to know what kind of press conference it was, why it was there, and what it was about. Mr. Karayev replied that we wanted to talk publicly about the illegal actions of the district Akimat leadership. 

The callers got Alnur Ilyashev's phone number from him, and that was it. According to him, no one called Alnur Ilyashev. They only called Karayev and me. No provocative statements were made.

Who in the Talgar district could have taken the press conference so seriously?

— All the residents of Talgar district with whom I spoke say that many problems come from the first deputy Akim, Orazkhan Kaspakbayev. As far as I heard, he always provoked people into conflict at all Akim meetings with the population. There was a case when, at a meeting with residents, he allegedly sent off a person ( reference to Russian swear word - Ed.) — but the ethics commission, for whatever reason, did not react; allegedly, they found no evidence. There were many other situations, which I will tell you about in more detail later.

How do you plan to proceed? Will you file a police report?

— Law enforcement agencies have every right to bring people in for questioning, and if I file a complaint now, I understand perfectly well what the prosecutor's office and the police will tell me. Therefore, I will not write a statement.

A publication in the media is already one, and if the prosecutor's office and the police decide to conduct an investigation, that will be their business. I will continue my public activities. This case only shows that I am pressing on the buttons of a certain group of people. A critical attitude makes our society stronger.

Do you have a positive take on this?

Yes, I do! The positive thing is that our law enforcement agencies have finally learned to act tactfully and cleverly according to the law — at least formally.

Original Author: Nikita Drobny