A Kazakh court is set to issue its verdict for a group of human rights campaigners on April 13, in a case that has drawn attention to Beijing’s expanding influence in the Central Asian nation.
The 19 activists were charged with inciting hatred for staging a protest in November 2025 over the detention of a Kazakh truck driver in China. The activists, including the driver’s wife, were arrested after burning the Chinese regime’s flag and a portrait of the regime’s top leader, Xi Jinping, during the demonstration in Almaty, close to Kazakhstan’s border with China’s Xinjiang.
The activists each face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted. The proceedings will not be open to the public, according to Atajurt, a Kazakhstan-based rights group documenting the detention of ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang, where more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslims are believed to be held in a sprawling network of internment camps.
International human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have called on the Kazakh authorities to drop the charges, arguing that they misused the criminal law in response to pressure from Beijing.
The Chinese consulate in Almaty sent two letters to Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry the day after the protests—a translated copy of which was viewed by The Epoch Times—and said the case had an “extremely negative impact” on bilateral relations.
Following the diplomatic notes, which were cited in the indictment, the Kazakhstan authorities opened a criminal investigation into the protesters, who initially received penalties such as fines and short-term detentions under administrative charges.
Serikzhan Bilash, head of the Atajurt human rights group, has appealed to the international community to demand the activists’ release on humanitarian grounds. One defendant’s health has deteriorated since giving birth on Feb. 19, while another detainee’s pregnant wife was unable to go to the hospital as she needs to care for their seven children alone, according to Bilash.
“The situation is very bad,” Bilash told The Epoch Times.
This case has reignited concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) influence in Kazakhstan, where Beijing has emerged as a major economic and trade partner for the Central Asian nation.
Bilash, a prominent campaigner who was detained by the Kazakh police in 2019, said he is concerned that the Kazakhstani authorities might be moving closer to the CCP.
“Kazakhstan is an arena where Western civilization clashes with the communist and imperialist ideologies of China and Russia,” Bilash said. “The Kazakh people and anti-communist activists worldwide do not want to see Western civilization lose to hegemony on this stage in Kazakhstan.”
He highlighted Kazakhstan’s strategic importance to Beijing, especially amid the ongoing U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran, which killed Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, a figure friendly to the CCP.
“After Venezuela and Iran, Kazakhstan is the only country that provides cheap oil and natural gas to the CCP,” Bilash said. “The CCP has already lost Venezuela and Iran. Perhaps the CCP would rather die than lose Kazakhstan.
“I worry that the West will lose Central Asia to the CCP,” Bilash added.
Researchers and human rights advocates have called the case a reminder of the CCP’s efforts to go after its targets beyond the border.
“The CCP treats everyone as a threat,” Serkan Tas, associate director of China studies at Washington-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, said at a press conference in January. “Our research shows that Chinese authorities label any diaspora member who asks questions, even someone simply trying to locate a missing relative, as an overseas terrorist.”
