Kazakhstan puts campaigner against Chinese camps under house arrest

Kazakhstan puts campaigner against Chinese camps under house arrest
FILE PHOTO: Kazakh rights activist Serikzhan Bilash walks outside a courthouse in Almaty, Kazakhstan, February 13, 2019. Picture taken February 13, 2019. REUTERS/Mariya Gordeyeva Copyright MARIYA GORDEYEVA(Reuters)
By Reuters
Share this articleComments
Share this articleClose Button

ALMATY (Reuters) - A Kazakh court has placed an activist who campaigned on behalf of ethnic Kazakhs in China under house arrest on the charge of calling for a "jihad" against the Chinese, state prosecutors said.

Serikzhan Bilash, a naturalized Kazakh citizen born in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, leads Atajurt, a group that has worked for the release of ethnic Kazakhs from "re-education" camps where activists say more than a million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims are held.

Police detained Bilash in Almaty, Kazakhstan's biggest city, last weekend and brought him before a court in Astana, the Central Asian nation's capital.

In a statement issued late on Monday, the Astana prosecutor's office said Bilash is suspected of making the jihad comment at a public event last month. He has yet to make a plea.

Prosecutors said the court placed Bilash under house arrest for two months while they prepare for trial.

(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Share this articleComments

You might also like

Cars submerged as Cyclone Belal sparks flash flooding in Mauritius

Indian rescuers pull out all 41 workers trapped in collapsed tunnel for 17 days

Moscow threatens to confiscate EU assets, West expanding Ukraine war to Asia, drone strikes