Opposition Leader Gets Prison, Adding to Alarm
KAZAKHSTAN
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Senior Kazakh opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov was sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of office while he was energy minister, adding to concerns of a clampdown on opposition in the country.
The sentence was the latest in a series of events that have led human rights observers and foreign governments to conclude that opposition and free speech are at risk in the country.
Ablyazov was found guilty of inflicting $3.6 million in damage on the state by “illegal entrepreneurial activity and abuse of power” when he headed the Central Asian nation’s power grid and Energy Ministry from 1997 to 1999.
He maintained that the case was politically motivated.
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