An interdistrict court in Astana has rejected a complaint by an unregistered movement called Atazhurt protesting the Kazakh Justice Ministry’s refusal to grant it registration, according to the group’s local representative.
Kapar Ahatuly said the special court concluded on September 29 that the complaint was groundless based on the presence of deceased people on Atazhurt’s petition for registration as well as an Excel formatting mistake.
Ahatuly dismissed the accusation that the list of at least 700 petitioners might include any dead people.
Contacted by RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, the Justice Ministry declined to comment.
Atazhurt was started by Serikzhan Bilash, an ethnic Kazakh from Xinjiang who moved to Kazakhstan in 2000 and received citizenship in 2011, and later helped highlight alleged mass abuses against Uyghurs in western China.
Kazakh officials have bristled at China’s treatment of ethnic Kazakhs and Uyghurs but have avoided joining international condemnations of Beijing for the alleged mass roundups and brutality.
China is a major trade partner with Kazakhstan and a significant investor in Kazakh projects.
Bilash led the Atazhurt Eriktileri (Volunteers of the Fatherland) group, which in 2018-19 staged several gatherings of ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang who have resettled in Kazakhstan and asked for help securing the release of their relatives and friends from reeducation camps in Xinjiang.
Kazakh authorities in March 2019 arrested Bilash and charged him with inciting ethnic hatred. They held him in custody for five months before fining and releasing him.
Source: Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty
