Watchdog

NUR-SULTAN -- Three Kazakh civil-rights activists have been jailed ahead of planned human rights rallies in the capital, Nur-Sultan.

Colleagues and friends of Marat Musabaev, Gulmira Khalyqova, and Ghalia Tamambaeva, told RFE/RL on December 10 that the three were sentenced to jail terms "to prevent their participation" in rallies planned for December 16.

According to the activists, a court in Nur-Sultan late on December 9 found Khalyqova and Tamambaeva guilty of taking part in an unsanctioned rally in front of the European Union office in the Kazakh capital on November 27.

The two, along with other activists, had urged EU officials to pressure Kazakh authorities over human and civil rights in the Central Asian state.

The two women were sentenced to 10 days in jail each.

Musabaev was found guilty of calling via the Internet for an unsanctioned rally in Nur-Sultan on December 16, his colleagues said.

There was no official confirmation of the trio's jailing.

The opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement established by Mukhtar Ablyazov, a fugitive tycoon and opposition politician, has announced plans to organize rallies in Nur-Sultan and Almaty, as well as in other towns and cities across the country on December 16, Kazakhstan's Independence Day.

December 16 also coincides with the 33rd anniversary of mass anti-Soviet demonstrations in Kazakhstan's former capital, Almaty, and the eighth anniversary of a deadly police crackdown against protests by oil workers in the southwestern town of Zhanaozen.

A court in Kazakhstan has banned the DVK movement, branding it an extremist organization.

MOSCOW -- A court in Moscow has sentenced another activist accused of assaulting police during an unsanctioned rally on July 27.

The Tver district court sentenced Eduard Malyshevsky late on December 9 to three years in prison after finding him guilty of causing "sharp pain" to a police officer.

Malyshevsky, who had been forced into a police car during the protest, apparently pushed the glass out of the side window of the vehicle, and the falling glass sheet hit a riot-police officer.

The 50-year-old activist pleaded not guilty, saying that he had not targeted anyone when he pushed the glass out of the police car's window.

Several sanctioned and unsanctioned rallies were held in Moscow over the summer in protest of a decision by the authorities to ban independent and opposition candidates from running in September municipal elections.

Dozens of protesters have been fined or given jail sentences for organizing and participating in the unsanctioned rallies.

The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center has declared Malyshevsky and several other activists arrested in the case political prisoners.

Russian security forces have been criticized for their heavy-handed tactics during the rallies.

Several activists were charged with assaulting police and were given prison sentences or suspended sentences.