All through investigating allegations of torture all over the January 2022 occasions – which got here come to be known as Bloody January or “Qandy Qantar” in Kazakh – Kazakhstan’s Common Prosecutor’s Place of business introduced the detention of Berik Abilbekov, the previous deputy head of the Almaty Police Branch, on Would possibly 28.
The place of business equipped few main points, mentioning simplest that Abilbekov were detained with regards to a felony case relating to “the use of torture against citizens in January 2022 in a special detention center located in the village of Koshmambet, Karasai district, Almaty region.”
Orda.kz stories that Abilbekov has been detained particularly in connection to the case of Kyrgyz jazz musician Vikram Ruzakhunov.
Ruzakhunov’s ordeal in January 2022 loose dramatic brightness at the Kazakh government’ omit of human rights, due procedure, the reality, and usual sense within the panicked days later countrywide protests erupted into violence. With President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev railing in televised addresses about “20,000 bandits,” “foreign fighters,” and “terrorists” supposedly wreaking havoc in Kazakhstan, the rustic’s regulation enforcement our bodies went out and located some.
As I wrote on the occasion:
On January 9, Kazakh tv station Khabar 24 confirmed a video of guy, with a puffy, trim, and bruised face, confessing to having taken $200 and a airplane price ticket to walk to Kazakhstan to protest. The person says he’s unemployed within the video.
However the ones hooked into Bishkek’s mini however mighty jazz scene identified the person as a jazz pianist who regularly traveled to Almaty for live shows. Ruzakhunov’s people instructed Kyrgyz media that Ruzakhunov had traveled to Almaty on January 2 for a live performance.
Ruzakhunov used to be spared and returned to Kyrgyzstan. In an interview with Vlast.kz in September 2023 he recounted that later he returned to Bishkek he used to be urged to reserve his mouth close. On account of the torture he skilled, Ruzakhunov had damaged ribs, broken lungs, and a concussion. “But after I went through all this, all this pain, I rethought what had happened and began giving interviews,” he stated.
Within the Vlast interview, Ruzakhunov explains how the enjoy remodeled him.
“Before the events that happened in Kazakhstan, I had no idea that this was happening, and that this could happen to me – that they could seize me on the road somewhere, hold me, then take me to an unknown direction and do whatever they want to me.”
Within the greater than two years since, Ruzakhunov has turn out to be more and more relentless in urgent for justice. Legal circumstances alike to the torture he, and others, skilled had been opened in February 2022 however made modest exit to start with. In Would possibly 2022, considered one of Ruzakhunov’s attorneys instructed Orda.kz that her shopper used to be afraid to advance again to Almaty, even to take part within the investigation. It used to be briefly suspended for a rarity of suspects. By way of September 2022, on the other hand, Ruzakhunov did advance again – and he known 10 law enforcement officials who beat him.
However once more, the case moved slowly. In his September 2023 Vlast interview, Ruzakhunov used to be clear-eyed concerning the date.
“Although there is plenty of evidence… the system protects its people. The system will not hand over its people, because otherwise it will begin to collapse and mistrust will arise.” He famous on the occasion that lots of the ones concerned retained their legit positions.
In April 2024, Ruzakhunov reported by means of social media that 4 law enforcement officials were arrested in a case that had grown to incorporate now not simply him however 21 alternative sufferers.
“The Prosecutor General’s Office assured us that it would bring the case to its logical conclusion, and the detention of the first 4 criminals in uniform is just the beginning. The rest will also be overtaken by karma,” Ruzakhunov wrote.
Karma, it kind of feels, got here for Abilbekov this moment. It’s but to be open if justice might be in the long run served.
In keeping with legit executive figures, 238 folk had been killed all over the early January 2022 occasions, and 1000’s detained. Activists and reporters have known as the ones figures into query.
