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Late Kazakh Author's Brother Wants To Republish Book On Organized Crime


The late author of "The Shymkent Mafia," Temirtas Tleulesov
The late author of "The Shymkent Mafia," Temirtas Tleulesov
SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan -- The brother of the late Kazakh author Temirtas Tleulesov says he will seek to republish his brother's controversial book about organized crime in southern Kazakhstan, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Mekimtas Tleulesov, an older brother of author Temirtas Tleulesov, told RFE/RL that he wants to republish "The Shymkent Mafia," which was first published in the late 1990s and includes several people who still work within the Kazakh government and opposition.

People in the book include Zauytbek Turysbekov, the former governor of the Southern Kazakhstan region and the current Kazakh ambassador in Russia; opposition leader Zharmakhan Tuyakbai; and Deputy Prime Minister Omirzak Shukeev.

Temirtas Tleulesov, 55, was never sued by any of those named in the book, but he was charged with hooliganism and went into hiding. He was convicted in absentia by a Shymkent court and sentenced to two years in prison.

Tleulesov stayed on the run for seven years -- often in the Aksu-Zhabagly nature reserve -- and was in hiding when he reportedly died of a heart attack in October 2007.

The Kazakh Bureau for Human Rights wrote about a case involving Tleulesov in 1999, when he was beaten by police at a Shymkent bank and arrested as an instigator of the fight.

His brother Mekimtas, 60, went to school to become a lawyer in order to represent his brother in court after a law was adopted forbidding a relative to act as an attorney without having a legal education.

Mekimtas Tleulesov said it will be difficult to get his brother's books republished because the people named in the book are still in power and his brother's family could be prosecuted on trumped up charges as a result.
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