Tag Archives: law

Kazakhstan bans communist party

SEPT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Almaty ordered the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, until a few years ago one of the only genuine opposition parties in the country, to disband permanently. Media reported that the Kazakh ministry of justice said the party had misrepre- sented its activities. In 2011, a few months before a parliamentary election in 2012, a court suspended the Communist Party.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Constitution referendum in Armenia likely by end of year

SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia is likely to hold a referendum in either November or December on constitutional amendments that would transfer power from the president to parliament, a senior member of the ruling HHK group told media.

This is clearest indication yet that a referendum on a new constitution, which the main opposition parties have said is designed to keep President Serzh Sargsyan’s grip on power when he leaves the presidency in 2018, is more than likely this year.

Vahram Baghdasaryan, leader of the HHK group, said: “If not in November, then in the beginning of December.”

This important because of the potentially destabilising impact of a referendum. Widespread street protests against a proposed increase in electricity prices in June showed just had fragile Armenia had become. Now the main opposition groups have pledged to turn the referendum into a de facto vote of confidence in the government and Mr Sargsyan.

Under the current constitution, Mr Sargsyan has to leave the presidency after two consecutive terms. He has said that he will comply with this stipulation but he has also said that he wants to transform Armenia into a parliamentary democracy.

His opponents say that he just trying to organise a power grab from inside parliament and that he wants to continue to run the country.

Armenia’s parliament is currently debating the constitutional changes. The ruling HHK group has said it is prepared to offer concessions to some of Armenia’s disparate opposition groups on the constitutional reform package in exchange for support.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Kazakh prosecutor bans websites

AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Increasingly concerned about radicalising influences, Kazakhstan’s prosecutor-general said it was banning 700 websites and 21 religious organisation. Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states are worried about extremists linked to the IS group recruiting disenfranchised young men to their causes. Free speech activists have accused the government of using these concerns as a pretext for clamping down on media.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Investigative journalist sent to jail in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Baku sentenced investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova to 7-1/2 years in prison for various financial crimes, triggering heavy criticism from the West of Azerbaijan’s human rights record and commitment to free speech.

Ismayilova joins a growing list of human rights activists, journalists and opposition supporters who have been sent to prison by the authorities in Azerbaijan over the past few years.

Opponents of President Ilham Aliyev have accused him of effectively purging Azerbaijan of dissidents.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said: “The outrageous verdict against Khadija Ismayilova shows the Azerbaijani authorities’ willingness to subvert the law to exact revenge against critics.”

This opinion was backed up by other human rights and media agencies as well as the EU, the British government and the United States.

Azerbaijan retorts that the West is trying to organise a coup.

Ismayilova was jailed for tax evasion, embezzlement and abuse of power, almost an exact mirror of the type of wrong-doings she has investigated in various government agencies, and even the presidential family, over the past few years.

Mr Roth of Human Rights Watch said independent observers had been unable to access the courtroom because pro-government supporters had taken all the seating.

“The government gets away with things like this because Azerbaijan has paid no price for throwing one dissident, one human rights activists after another into prison,” he said.

Part of the dilemma for Europe is that it wants to reduce its gas dependency on Russia. This means finding an alternative source of gas and this source of gas is Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani government appears to have gambled that Europe won’t stop building pipelines and negotiating gas contracts despite grumbling about its crackdown on dissidents.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Labour unions in Kazakhstan criticise draft labour law

AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government has drawn up a draft bill which is says will do more to protect workers’ right although trade unions have said that it will reduce overtime pay and strain worker-company relations further.

The oil workers trade unions in western Kazakhstan have written to the government to ask it to change the draft labour law, setting up a stand-off between workers and the government.

Birjan Nurymbetov, the deputy minister for health and social development, told media that the new labour code was good for workers because it defended their rights and increased the criteria that an employer needs to test before he can sack an employee to 25 from 20.

“The new Labour Code fully protects the rights of employees against unfair dismissal,” he said.

The trade unions had a different view.

“The current project rate for overtime, holidays and weekends, is no less than 1-/12 to two times. This will be reduced to 1-1/4,” said Berdy Otebay, deputy head of the Aktau-based trade union Karazhanb- asmunaigas.

Relations between companies and workers have been strained since a protest in 2011 in the western oil town of Zhanaozen ended in clashes that killed at least 15 people. Companies have become increasingly wary of unions who have started to orgsanise workers more effectively, often securing pay rises.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Uzbekistan arrests nine linked to Gulnara

AUG. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Uzbekistan said they had arrested nine more people in connection to financial crimes linked to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, RFE/RL reported. Until March 2014 Ms Karimova was one of the most powerful people in Uzbekistan. She has been under house since then.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 244, published on Aug. 21 2015)

Azerbaijan jails prominent human rights defenders

AUG. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Azerbaijan sentenced human rights defenders Leyla and Arif Yunus to 8-1/2 and 7 years in prison for financial crimes, in what their supporters said was a sham trial.

Tanya Lokshina, a Human Rights Watch researcher based in Moscow, attended the sentencing.

“No matter what technical and legalistic pretexts the authorities are now using to lock up and destroy the Yunuses, one glance into that courtroom leaves you with no shadow of a doubt — this is a political trial and the supposed perpetrators are in fact victims of a vicious repression campaign against independent critics,” she wrote in a story on the Guardian website.

The Yunuses are just the latest human rights defenders, opposition activists or troublesome journalist to be sent to jail in Azerbaijan. The authorities have responded by saying that the West is mounting a concerted effort to blacken its name with negative PR.

But, perhaps, a precedent has been set. Attitudes towards free speech in Azerbaijan appear very dim as the death of another journalist on Aug. 8 appears to show.

Razim Aliyev died after he was beaten up apparently for criticising on Facebook international Azerbaijani footballer Javid Huseynov for making a politically sensitive gesture at a match between his club Gabala and a Cypriot team. Police have detained six men, including Mr Huseynov.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)

Armenia to convict Russian soldier

AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Russian military court sentenced soldier Valery Permyakov to 10 years in jail for desertion and then handed him over to Armenian officials who are building a case to try him for the stabbing to death of an entire family earlier this year. Permyakov had been serving at the Gyumri military base in Armenia, one of Russia’s largest overseas bases.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)

Kyrgyz court sentences Ex-Osh mayor

JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Kyrgyzstan sentenced Melis Myrzakhmatov, a former mayor of Osh and a firebrand politician with a large following to 7 years in prison for various financial crimes. Myrzakhmatov was viewed as a potential destabilising influence. He has been on the run since January 2014, when he lost his mayoral seat.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Tajikistan limits government news

DUSHANBE, JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik government said official news should be sent first to the state news agency Khovar, prompting allegations of a media crackdown.

Bishkek-based Tajik news agency Ozodagon published a scan of the decree.

The decree said: “All official information, meetings of the Government of Tajikistan, the President of Tajikistan’s working visits within the country and abroad, international, republican and sectoral meetings should be provided first to Khovar state information agency, and only after that should be sent by the agency to other media.”

The authorities in Tajikistan have been limiting media freedom over the past few years. The West has accused Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon of increasingly authoritarian tendencies.

The new law is another step towards becoming a fully authoritarian state, said Dr Irshod Sulaymoni, an independent political analyst in Dushanbe.

“The decree essentially contradicts the laws, including the constitution, of Tajikistan and questions the reality of equal access to information given by the law,” he said. “I think that the decree is clearly intended to control the official news.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)