Tag Archives: law

Defaming Aliyev is criminal, votes Azerbaijan’s parliament

NOV. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s parliament voted to make defamation of the president on the internet a criminal offence, a move that President Ilham Aliyev’s critics say highlights just how authoritarian his administration has become. Defamation has been a criminal offence for three years in Azerbaijan but there had previously been no specific mention of the president. The internet is important in Azerbaijan as it is, or was, one of the only places were Azerbaijanis could swap news and views relatively safely.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Kazakhstan introduces new law for broadcasters

DEC. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — New legislation in Kazakhstan will mean that from January 2017 all foreign TV stations planning on broadcasting programmes from the country will have to have a registered office, media quoted Kazakhstan’s information minister, Dauren Abayev, as saying. The move is seen as yet another way for Kazakhstan to increase its control of the media.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Landmark rape case in Kazakhstan challenges stigmas

ALMATY, NOV. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Almaty jailed four men for between eight and 10 years for the rape of woman in a case that was only investigated after the mother of the victim posted a teary, anguished video on the internet asking for help.

Few rape cases are prosecuted in Kazakhstan because the victims are afraid to speak out against their attackers and are also worried about the stigma of being raped.

In this case, the victim was attacked and raped near a police station in the town of Yesik, which has a population of about 40,000 people and is roughly 40km east of Almaty. She said that initially the police were not interested in her complaint, possibly because one of the attackers was the son of a local politician, and allowed the attackers to walk away free. It was only when her mother broadcast her video, touching a nerve with the public, that the authorities showed any interest.

After the verdict a lawyer for the rape victim, who can’t be named for legal reasons, said that the conviction of the four men for rape was an important milestone for Kazakhstan.

“The verdict is of course fair. It means a lot because all women of Kazakhstan were waiting for this verdict, all those who kept silent their whole life about rapes. For ages, centuries, this problem was concealed and finally there is a woman who has openly spoken about it,” lawyer Aiman Umarova told The Conway Bulletin.

“For the country it means a new milestone when the government paid attention to women’s rights, to this social problem, and towards abuse against women.”

While some were celebrating the case as a step towards equality there has been a backlash. The rape victim and her family have had to ask for police protection as they have been receiving death threats from friends and family of the attackers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

With one eye on EU regulations, Georgia reintroduces tests for cars

TBILISI, NOV. 15 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian economy minister Dimitry Kumsishvili said compulsory vehicle maintenance and emissions inspections will resume from Jan. 1 2018, after a gap of 14 years, a move aimed at improving the safety of Georgian roads and meeting EU standards.

Mandatory vehicle inspection was abolished in 2004 due to its ineffectiveness and vulnerability to corruption, a reflection, perhaps, of Georgia’s chaotic business and social scene in the years after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

Mr Kumsishvili said he wanted to attract foreign companies with experience to take on the challenge of running and monitoring an annual vehicle safety scheme and has invited companies with at least 15 years experience in Europe to apply by Dec. 8 to run the scheme.

Mikheil Khmaladze, the director of the Land Transport Agency, which sits within the economy ministry, told The Conway Bulletin that Georgia needed a company with experience if it was going to make a success of the project.

“We might know how to do this in theory but we lack the practical experience. The international company will be a consultant and will advise us on what to do. There is a lot of risk of corruption in this field,” he said in an interview.

The winner of the tender will be given a two-year contract starting on Jan. 1 2017.

Inspections will be conducted throughout the country by local businesses. A maximum price per inspection will be set and a national database, where all the data regarding will be entered, raked over and inspected for transparency.

The reintroduction of a vehicle inspection scheme was a requirement stipulated by the Georgia-EU

Association Agreement requirement. Georgia wants to join the EU.

Environmentalists have also said that the scheme is needed to cut pollutants.

Nino Shavgulidze, Chief of Party of Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), said that cars were the biggest pollutants in Tbilisi.

“Statistics shows that of the more than 1m cars running in Georgia, a majority are more than 10 years old. Most of these vehicles do not have catalytic converters, are very poorly maintained, and emit pollutants that are dangerous for human health,” she said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Kazakh beer king imprisoned for funding coup

ALMATY, NOV. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A closed court in Astana sentenced Tokhtar Tuleshov, the self- styled beer king of southern Kazakhstan, to 21 years in prison for attempting to stage a coup against Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Prosecutors had said that Tuleshov had financed a series of anti- government protests in April and May that focused on land ownership. The breadth of the protests and their leaderless nature unnerved Mr Nazarbayev. Police arrested the protest organisers and charged Tuleshov, detained in January for unrelated charges of illegally owning weapons and fraud, with financing the demonstrations.

Tuleshov made his millions through the Shymkentpivo brewery, one of the biggest in Kazakhstan, in the southern city of Shymkent.

His supporters say that he has been framed and point out that it is not possible for him to have paid for the protests from prison.

An ostentatious and dapper figure, Tuleshov used to drive through the scruffy streets of Shymkent in a chauffeured Rolls Royce. Birthday parties for his daughter were lavish affairs with pop stars flown in to sing and guests dressing up in outlandish fancy dress.

The trial was held behind closed doors with journalists only allowed into the courtroom for the final verdict. Human rights activists have said that the arbitrary and closed nature of the trial worried them and could set a precedent.

Analysts have also speculated that Mr Nazarbayev and other senior members of the government from the central and northern tribes in Kazakhstan used Tuleshov to send a warning to high-ranking members of the southern tribe not to challenge their dominance.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Female judges to deal with rape in Kazakhstan

NOV. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor-General Zhakip Asanov said female attorneys should be in charge of all criminal trials involving sexual violence, such as rape and paedophilia. In a statement, Mr Asanov said women are better at understanding such cases. Rights groups have accused the Kazakh justice system of being soft on sexual violence.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Insulting Tajik President becomes a crime

NOV. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon signed into law a motion passed by parliament at the end of last year that insulting the president would become a criminal office, media reported. The new law underlines the increasingly autocratic nature of the regime that Mr Rakhmon has built up in Tajikistan. Last month, MPs also decreed that he should be given the title of Founder of the Nation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kazakh citizen to face trial for fighting in Ukraine

OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Aktobe, north-west Kazakhstan, started hearing the trial of Maksim Yermolov, a Kazakh citizen of Russian ethnicity, for fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. He was arrested in Feb. 2015 after returning from Ukraine’s Dontesk region. Kazakhstan has a sizable Russian population in the north of the country and has always worried that many would prefer to separate from Kazakhstan and join Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Russian soldier dies in brawl in Tajikistan

OCT. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ahliddin Mashrabov, a Tajik, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing a Russian soldier during a fight in a restaurant in the Tajik provincial city of Qurghon-Teppa. Mashrabov pleaded guilty to murdering Mashrabov but said that he was attacked first. The case has shown up the often fractious ties between Russian soldiers based in Tajikistan and ordinary Tajiks. Russia has 7,000 soldiers based in Tajikistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Acting Uzbek President wants court strengthened

OCT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Continuing his apparent charm offensive ahead of a presidential election on Dec. 4, acting Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree to improve and strengthen the country’s judicial system. Media reported that the decree should strengthen the rights of the defendants and the independence of the courts. Human rights groups have said that the Uzbek state uses the courts to impose its political will.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)