Five years behind bars for talking about a referendum on secession from Kazakhstan - the verdict of the local court
A local court in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, sentenced two residents of the East Kazakhstan region who called for a referendum on secession from Kazakhstan to be held in their home region.
According to the regional prosecutor's office, in February 2024, the defendants promoted separatist ideas in an online chat.
"They claimed that a referendum on secession from the rest of the country should be held in the region, and they actively incited ethnic and social discord. Moreover, if the referendum failed, the defendants believed, the territory of the East Kazakhstan region would be forcibly seized," the prosecutor's office said.
Local security officials and judges did not say what kind of forces the accused were planning to seize the Kazakh region.
“Such reasoning brought two residents of Ust-Kamenogorsk to a criminal case and trial. After the arrest and the start of the trial, both of them admitted guilt and repented. The court took into account the position of the prosecutor’s office and sentenced both separatists to five years in prison,” says the materials of the regional prosecutor’s office.
This is not the first time that residents of Kazakhstan have been accused of “separatism.” At the end of 2023, in Petropavlovsk, members of the so-called “People’s Council of Workers” were sentenced, who tried to achieve the sovereignty of their native North Kazakhstan region, and in Altai, a supporter of the re-creation of the USSR was convicted, who claimed that “East Kazakhstan belongs to Russian territory.”
Five years behind bars for talking about a referendum on secession from Kazakhstan – the verdict of a local court