Thread by @aliyadusembaev5

How authorities cover up the beatings of protesters
21 March 2022 #Aktobe
Dania #Bekturganova reveals how her husband Aslanbek #Omarov is being harassed.
#Kazakhstan #NotTerrorists #Zhanaozen2022 #KazakhstanProtests @RobBerschinski @RepKarenBass

Aslanbek is a private entrepreneur and the sole breadwinner in the family and together with Dania they are raising a 2-year-old daughter. Dania Bekturganova is currently pregnant.
@USRepKeating
@RepGregoryMeeks
@SenatorCollins

Aslanbek had taken part in peaceful protests and urged against pogroms.
On 9 January 2022, four SOBR officers and one civilian detained Aslanbek Omarov from his workplace, put him in a car and took him to the police.
@SenatorRisch
@RonWyden

SOBR officers started beating Aslanbek in the car, kicking him and using rifle butts. At the police station he was also beaten on his body and head, as a result of which his kidneys were punctured and he had bruises on his head.
@LindseyGrahamSC

For a fortnight Aslanbek's wife, Denmark, was unable to see him as the police cited quarantine, when in fact they were waiting for the battering to pass. The government lawyer, reported that Aslanbek was badly beaten.
@MarshaBlackburn
@SenJohnBarrasso

On 26 January 2022, Aslanbek was transferred to the SIZO on the basis of an open political criminal case under Article 272 Part 1 ("organisation of mass disorder").
@SenToddYoung
@senrobportman
@SenThomTillis

Dania Bekturganova tried to access video footage from the police department where her husband was beaten, but was told that the video no longer existed - it had been removed. A forensic examination did not confirm the beatings.
@SenatorWicker

This implies that the authorities want to cover up the beatings, leaving the officers who took part in the beatings, who knew about it and who did nothing, unpunished.
@SenToomey
@SenCoryGardner
@lisamurkowski

It is worth recalling that on 16 March 2022, Tokayev said that the authorities had acknowledged the facts of torture in Kazakhstan after the January protests, and had ordered a thorough investigation and that torture must be eradicated at the root.

It appears that in this case, as in others, there is no thorough investigation and no prosecution of those responsible. This means that Tokayev's words and statements about political reforms are a fiction, an empty sound.
@SenatorBraun
@SenRickScott

An independent international investigation is therefore needed, as called for by Dania Bekturganova.
@ChrisVanHollen
@SenatorShaheen
@MittRomney