On the morning of August 17, the Kazakh human rights activist Bakhytzhan Toregozhina was arrested while on a walk in Almaty, near the site of a planned rally. According to the local police department, the arrest was connected to a planned “run” in support of former ultramarathon runner turned politician Marat Zhylanbayev. The 62-year-old opposition figure is currently serving a seven-year sentence on charges of participating in the activities of a banned organization.
The detention marked the fourth confrontation between activists and authorities in recent weeks over Zhylanbayev’s imprisonment. Earlier actions have led to fines and jail time for activists. While previous cases focused on activists’ explicit support for Zhylanbayev, Toregozhina’s arrest took a different turn: she was questioned under Kazakhstan’s law on extremism and later released. While no specific organization was mentioned, some have suggested it may be connected to the banned “Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan” (DVK), a movement outlawed in 2018.
Despite gaining popularity as an ultramarathon runner in the 1990s, Zhylanbayev has since become known for his political career, especially after he tried to found his own party, Alga Kazakhstan (Forward Kazakhstan), in 2022. Despite applying for registration 16 times, as of July 2023, the party was never officially recognized.
Instead, Kazakh authorities linked Zhylanbayev to the DVK. In May 2023, police arrested him for “participating in the activities of a banned organization” and “financing an extremist organization,” citing two wire transfers to alleged DVK members and contact with the group’s exiled founder, Mukhtar Ablyazov. This evidence was never presented to the public, as the trial was held behind closed doors. Despite appeals from Zhylanbayev, Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court upheld the seven-year sentence in June 2024.
To protest what he sees as an unlawful sentence, Zhylanbayev has gone on multiple hunger strikes over the last two years, which have taken a toll on his health. For this reason, Zhylanbayev’s wellbeing has been a key focus for activists like Toregozhina and Bibigul Imangalieva, who are linked to Alga Kazakhstan.
Even before his conviction, they raised alarms about his treatment. In September 2023, activists claimed he was being held in a cell without ventilation and served food below “standards.” What standard they were referring to isn’t clear.
Authorities have treated such statements as “disseminating false information.” In the past month alone, at least three women who publicly supported Zhylanbayev have faced penalties. On July 31, Toregozhina was fined 78,000 tenge (about $146) for a video stating Zhylanbayev’s weight had dropped to just 45 kilograms. One week later, Imangalieva received a 10-day jail sentence over a video she shared in April, a sentence handed down just two days after she and others held a press conference calling for Zhylanbayev’s hospitalization due to his poor health. On August 1, activist Nazgul Zhussupova received a similar sentence for allegedly insulting a prison employee. All three deny any wrongdoing.
The detention of Toregozhina, however, took a different route. Although detained on the pretext of a rally in support of Zhylanbayev, she was instead taken in for interrogation as a witness in a criminal case under the law on extremism. While the exact case was not specified, some have linked it to the banned DVK party. She was released later that day.
While Zhylanbayev still has almost five years left of his prison sentence, activist statements suggest that it has already greatly impacted his health. How this will affect his remaining time in prison, and how activists and authorities will respond to the situation, only time will tell.
