Kazakhstani President Pardons Jailed Opposition Leader

Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev issued a pardon May 13 for Mukhtar Ablyazov, a leader of Kazakhstan's main opposition movement who had been serving a six-year prison sentence on corruption and abuse of power charges. The pardon may be intended to promote a rapprochement between Nazarbayev and his more moderate political opponents.

Ablyazov was a founding member of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DCK) movement in late 2001. In the summer of 2002, he was convicted on corruption charges stemming from his tenure as the country's energy minister. Ablyazov maintained that the state's case against him was politically motivated, and was intended to silence Nazarbayev administration critics. It was not immediately clear when Ablyazov would be released from a labor camp in northern Kazakhstan, where he is serving his sentence.

Ablyazov's lawyers announced in April that they would seek a pardon. According to published reports, the request left those in Nazarbayev's inner circle sharply divided. An April 23 article in the Respublika newspaper, for example, claimed that Prime Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov and Timur Kulibayev, the president's son-in-law, were steadfastly opposed to pardoning Ablyazov.

Nazarbayev has taken a more conciliatory approach towards his domestic political opponents since early April, when a US federal court in New York indicted merchant banker James Giffen under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Giffen is accused of diverting fees received from oil conglomerates for the development of Kazakhstani oil fields to bank accounts controlled by top Kazakhstani government officials. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Some political observers in Almaty believe that, in pardoning Ablyazov, Nazarbayev seeks to reduce the level of confrontation with DCK, thus putting him in better position to contain any political fallout arising from Giffen's prosecution in New York.

Prominent DCK members have reportedly sent signals that they would be receptive to a rapprochement with Nazarbayev, provided the president took steps to recognize and protect their business interests. At the time of its formation in late 2001, many observers viewed the DCK as a political reaction to the expanding economic influence of Nazarbayev's associates and family members. [For a background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

If Nazarbayev can reconcile with moderates within DCK, the opposition's ability to exert pressure on the government would be greatly reduced. It would also leave the irreconcilable opposition, headed by former Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, increasingly isolated. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Ablyazov's pardon alone may not be sufficient to please the moderate wing of DCK. Many opposition loyalists view the release of another DCK leader, Galimzhan Zhakiyanov, who also was jailed on abuse of power charges in the summer of 2002, as a prerequisite to reconciliation. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archives].

Finding a way to set Zhakiyanov free may not be as easy as it was for Ablyazov, however. At a May 12 news conference, Zhakiyanov's attorney said the jailed DCK leader would not seek a pardon. Instead, he is appealing his conviction. The attorney, Yelena Rebenchuk, said she expected to hear in mid-May whether or not a Kazakh court will hear the appeal.

Zhakiyanov's tactics appear designed to call attention to the question of judicial independence, and thus place officials in a difficult position. Kazakhstani authorities, as underscored by the recent rape trial of journalist Sergei Duvanov, have been accused of orchestrating convictions against political opponents. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Zhakiyanov, like both Ablyazov and Duvanov, insists that the charges against him were politically motivated. Thus, if an appeals court was to overturn his conviction and release him, it could be viewed as a tacit admission that the case against him had indeed been trumped up.

Meanwhile, some leading government critics continue to complain about harassment. In one May 2 incident, Yevgeny Zhovtis, head of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, asserted that a package contained a suspicious-looking substance had been planted in his car. Zhovtis discovered the package in the trunk of his car shortly before he was to depart for Uzbekistan to address participants of the Tashkent meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on human rights conditions in Central Asia. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archives].

Subsequently, an analysis of the package showed that it did not contain drugs, but was merely dried grass. Despite the revelation, Zhovtis continues to believe that authorities had a hand in the incident. "Either it was a provocation, which was necessary to create a hullabaloo, or it was a warning issued to me that it will be real drugs next time," Zhovtis told the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency on May 6.