Lawyer: Kazakh activist told to confess or get hard sentence
Posted August 16, 2019 12:13 pm.
MOSCOW — A Kazakh news report says the lawyer for a prominent activist on trial for inciting ethnic tensions says her client has been told to confess guilt or face prison.
The trial of Serikzhan Bilash, who has campaigned for the release of ethnic Kazakhs in China, began Friday in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s principal city. Journalists were barred from attending.
The Kazakh news site Vlast.kz quoted lawyer Aiman Umarova, as saying Bilash told her that officials said if he did not admit guilt, he would face “a real sentence.”
The detention of possibly over a million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities in Chinese internment camps has raised acute concerns in Kazakhstan, which heavily relies on trade with neighbouring China. Bilash’s group has actively supported relatives of those detained.
The Associated Press
