Tag Archives: law

Kazakhstan’s Court blocks anti-gay laws

MAY 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court blocked a bill that would have banned so-called gay propaganda, only a few days after Olympic athletes said it contradicted the spirit of the Olympic Games.

In their letter to the International Olympic Committee, the athletes criticised he law, similar to one brought in by Russia in 2013, and asked the Games’ governing body to pressure Kazakhstan into reconsidering the law.

The strategy now appears to have worked.

As ever, timing is everything. Kazakhstan is competing with Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. A decision is due in July and Kazakhstan would have been very keen to avoid any negative publicity surrounding its bid in the run-up to that announcement.

According to media reports, the Constitutional Council rejected the bill because if considered it vague and legally incorrect.

That, though, may not be the end of it. The promoter of the bill, MP Aldan Smayyl, said amendments to the current draft will be made and the bill will be submitted to the Parliament again soon.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Parliament approves Tajik-China extradition pact

MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s parliament unanimously approved a Tajik-China extradition law. China is increasing its influence across Central Asia, a region it considers to be its backyard.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Turkmenistan approves Caspian deal

MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s parliament, the Majilis, approved a decree on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea bed with Kazakhstan an important step, to smoothing out the ongoing row between the countries which ring the Caspian Sea on how to divide up its potential hydrocarbon riches.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Drop NGO law, UN tells Kyrgyzstan

MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Rupert Colville, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that Kyrgyzstan should drop a draft law that will make cooperation between local and foreign NGOs more complicated. “This vague wording may put at risk numerous organisations working to deliver services or conduct human rights advocacy,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Court shuts Uzbek newspaper

MAY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tashkent ordered the closure of Noviy Vek, a privately owned weekly newspaper for, apparently, undermining the moral values of the country. Uzbekistan has one of the worst records for free press in the world.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Georgia’s parliament to consider new banking law

MAY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament will consider adopting a law that will shift supervisory powers over commercial banks away from the Central Bank to an independent supervisory body, media reported.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Georgia’s Court questions election process

MAY 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country’s parliamentary election process is unfair.

In particular, the Court said discrepancies in the size of the constituencies used for the first-past-the-post system diminished the election’s fairness.

In Georgia’s parliamentary elections, 150 MPs are voted into parliament. The first- past-the-post system is used to elect 73 MPs and proportional representation for the remain- ing 77 seats. The problem,advocates for change have said, is that the first-past-the-post constituencies vary in size from 6,000 voters to over 150,000 voters.

The landmark ruling strengthens the case for change.

“It’s up to the Georgian Parliament to decide on proportional and majoritarian models of the electoral system provided that constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens will be protected in this process,” Georgian media quoted the Constitutional Court as saying.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Turkmen President issues 1,200 amnesties

MAY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – To celebrate Constitution Day on May 18, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov issued an amnesty to 1,200 people languishing in Turkmenistan’s prisons, the AFP news agency reported. Mr Berdymukhamedov is given to issuing presidential amnesties to mark official holidays.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Police in Azerbaijan question another businessman

MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan questioned businessman Ibrahim Ibrahimov over an outstanding loan from the state-linked International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), media reported, the second high-profile Azerbaijani company owner to be hauled into a police station in a week.

Turan news agency reported that Mr Ibrahimov took a loans $57m, but sources in IBA told the news agency that the sum was actually $850m.

Last week police detained Nizami Piriyev, head of Azerbaijani Methanol Company. He was charged with financial fraud. Mr Piriyev is also charged with not repaying bank loans.

Natiq Cafarli, economist and executive director of ReAL opposition movement said in an interview with faktxeber.com that he does not expect the oligarchs to stay in jail for a long time. He said that the government just wants to recover its money.

“The ruling party does not need a lot of news around famous people,” he said. “They will be released soon.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Azerbaijani court ruled loans to be paid in full

MAY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Constitutional Court ruled that loans taken out in US dollars before the 30% devaluation of the Azerbaijani manat in February have to be repaid in full. Borrowers had hoped the Court would agree for debt to be repaid in manat at the lower rate.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)