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DE RUEHTA #1966 2770752
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 030752Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASTANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3506
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE 0663
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNCLS/SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 2191
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0066
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0775
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 0028
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEFAAA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC 0221
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC 0143
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 1950

UNCLAS ASTANA 001966 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM KCRM KZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN:  CRIMINAL INVESTIGATORS INTERVIEW 
OPPOSITION LEADERS 
 
REF: ASTANA 1872 (NOTAL) 
 
¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Three opposition leaders met separately 
with criminal investigators on September 29 in connection 
with charges that they harbored a fugitive in a murder case. 
Authorities named one of the three, OSDP Deputy Chairman 
Amirzhan Kosanov, a witness, rather than a suspect -- a move 
Kosanov believes was an attempt to split the opposition.  The 
case has received very little media coverage in recent days. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
¶3. (SBU)  We spoke separately on October 2 with three of the 
four Kazakhstani opposition figures who are the subject of a 
criminal investigation launched by the Ministry of Internal 
Affairs on September 24 -- Azat party leader Bulat Abilov, 
National Social Democratic Party (OSDP) Deputy Chairman 
Amirzhan Kosanov, and Shanyrak movement head Asylbek 
Kozhakhmetov.  The fourth, Alga party Chairman Vladimir 
Kozlov, is in Warsaw, reportedly attending the OSCE's annual 
Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. 
 
¶4. (SBU) As reported in reftel, the four leaders are under 
investigation for harboring a fugitive from justice, a 
businessman named Yesentay Baisakov, who fled to Ukraine in 
¶2003.  The authorities maintain that Baisakov, who was 
previously linked to the now defunct Democratic Choice of 
Kazakhstan (DVK) opposition party, is a suspect in a 2001 
murder in Pavlovdar.  The criminal case against the 
opposition leaders is apparently based on the fact that they 
signed letters in 2005 and 2007 in support of Baisakov's 
successful political asylum claim in Ukraine. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Abilov, Kosanov, and Kozhakhmetov told us that they 
each met with criminal investigators on September 29.  Abilov 
was informed that he would be interviewed as a suspect, in 
the presence of a defense lawyer.  When Abilov explained that 
his attorney was out of the country, the investigators agreed 
that the interview could be postponed until October 6. 
Abilov maintained to us that he believes the authorities are 
"inclined to see this case through to the end." 
 
¶6. (SBU) Kozhakhmetov informed us that he was interviewed by 
investigators as a suspect, with his lawyer present.  He 
signed a document which compels him to notify the authorities 
if he leaves Almaty.  (NOTE:  Kozhakhmetov contended to the 
Deputy Chief of Mission on September 26 that that there are 
no legal grounds for the case against the opposition leaders, 
since the law defines "harboring" as providing physical 
shelter, which they did not give to Baisakov.  END NOTE.) 
 
¶7. (SBU) Kosanov told us that investigators came to see him 
at the OSDP's main office.  He was interviewed as a witness, 
not as a suspect.  The investigators were principally 
interested in determining who initiated the letters in 
support of Baisakov.  Kosanov told them that he did not 
remember.  The investigators seized a record book of outgoing 
correspondence. 
 
¶8. (U) The case has received very little media coverage in 
recent days.  There was only a small article about it in the 
October 2 edition of the weekly opposition newspaper "Svoboda 
Slova," which included a brief interview with Kosanov.  In 
the interview, he maintained that the authorities named him 
as a witness rather than as a suspect to try to cause a split 
the opposition, but this plan had failed in its aim. 
 
HOAGLAND