The trial of the 10 people charged with the murder of opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbaev began on June 14. The defendants include the former Senate majority leader and several members of the security forces. The first day was immediately adjourned because two defendants’ lawyers were absent.
The venue for the trial has caused some controversy. Family members want the trial held in the capital, Almaty, where the victims were kidnapped from, but the government is holding the trial 120 miles away where the bodies had been found. The distance prevents many family members from attending the trial.
"The [victims'] parents, brothers, sisters, their spouses and children -- their relatives are [all] deprived of their rights," Rysbek Sarsenbaev, brother of one of the victims, said. "They deprive us of our right to be present at the trial. That is not good. We want to look into the eyes of those who ordered the killings, into the eyes of those carried out the killings. We want to hear what they say. Is it really they who committed the crime, or different people who did that? It's not yet clear. Why do they deprive us of our right to attend the trial?"
The following day the trial began with the family and lawyers of the accused claiming that the confessions were beaten out of the defendants. Erzhan Utembaev pled his innocence as the trial began.
But the biggest threat to the President’s power seems to be coming from his own daughter, Darigha Nazarbaeva. She began a campaign in mid-June to unite all the political blocs that support her father’s presidency into one ruling party. Although this seems like a loyal move, with the parties united under her leadership, she will assure her accession to the throne. Her real intention was hinted at when she also called for political reforms of the system that have kept her father in power for 20 years.
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