ASTANA -- Kazakh opposition activist Erkin Qaziev was released from prison hours ahead of schedule in an apparent move by authorities to avoid possible rallies by his supporters at the prison gates to greet him.
Qaziev's wife, Roza Kumakova, told RFE/RL that prison guards transported her husband from the penitentiary to a destination he had chosen several hours before he was expected to leave the correctional institution near Astana, the capital.
Qaziev was sentenced to two years in prison on a charge of taking part in the activities of the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement and assaulting a law enforcement officer.
Qaziev and his supporters have rejected the accusations as politically motivated, while Kazakh human right groups have recognized him as a political prisoner.
Qaziev is among dozens of Kazakh activists arrested in recent years for taking part in rallies organized by the DVK's leader, Mukhtar Ablyazov, a vocal critic of Kazakhstan's government who lives in self-imposed exile in France.
Ablyazov is wanted by Kazakhstan for alleged embezzling some $5 billion, which he vehemently denies. His DVK movement was labeled as extremist and banned in Kazakhstan in March 2018.
Also in 2018, a Kazakh court sentenced Ablyazov in absentia to life in prison for murder, a charge he also has denied and labeled politically motivated.
That ruling came after another Kazakh court had sentenced Ablyazov to 20 years in prison in absentia after convicting him of organizing and leading a criminal group, as well as abuse of office, embezzlement, and financial mismanagement.
Ablyazov has called all of the charges and accusations against him politically motivated.