Members of a Kazakh human rights organization and their relatives say they were detained and intercepted while attempting to travel to the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan’s capital this week to raise concerns about the prosecution of activists linked to Xinjiang-related advocacy.
The incidents involved members of Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights, a group that has long documented the detention of ethnic Kazakhs, Uyghurs, and other minorities in China’s Xinjiang region, also known as East Turkistan among independence activists. Rights advocates say the actions by Kazakh authorities reflect increasing pressure on activists whose work has challenged both Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang and Kazakhstan’s close ties with China.
Intercepted on Way to Embassy
Maksutkhan’s wife, Nurguli Ibrayeva, told The Epoch Times she boarded a train in Almaty bound for Astana on May 25. She said she intended to meet with U.S. Embassy officials to discuss her husband’s case and the sentencing of multiple Atajurt members.Ibrayeva said police officers escorted her off the train before it departed and took her to a railway police station, where she was held for about 90 minutes. She added that she was later transferred to another police station, where two men in plain clothes questioned her for roughly two hours without presenting identification.
She told The Epoch Times that the police kept asking why she was going to the U.S. Embassy and what she planned to tell them. She said police told her to explain everything to them instead and that there was no need to go to the U.S. Embassy.
According to Ibrayeva, the men also warned her that she would not be allowed to reach Astana.
“No matter whether you take a taxi, train, or plane, we will stop you,” she quoted them as saying. “You should just go home.”
Speaking to The Epoch Times on May 28, she said she had been traveling with Yerbek Nurakh’s wife, another activist connected to the group.
“We were on the road from Almaty to Astana because the U.S. Embassy was scheduled to receive us at 11 a.m. tomorrow,” she said. “But before we reached Astana, we were stopped midway. Security personnel detained me and brought me back to Almaty.”
Dina said the two women were held for more than five hours before police transported them back to the city.
Documenting Xinjiang Detentions
Atajurt has spent years documenting cases involving ethnic Kazakhs and other minorities detained in China’s Xinjiang region, where Beijing has carried out mass arbitrary detention, forced assimilation, and other abuses.The Chinese communist regime has denied human rights violations in Xinjiang, describing its policies as counterterrorism measures.
Some received prison sentences of up to five years, while others were given restricted-freedom sentences. All were banned from participating in public or political activities for three years.
