Kazakh Gets Five Years On Terror, Extremism Conviction

October 08, 2014

A court in Kazakhstan has sentenced a resident of Almaty region to five years in jail for "propagating terrorism and religious extremism."

The regional prosecutor’s office said on October 8 that the man, whose name was not disclosed, had been charged with extremism after police caught him passing audio files with extremist content to another man earlier this year.

Investigators accused him of propagating religious extremism and inciting religious hatred among members of a religious community in the town of Sarqan.

No more details were released.

Authorities said last month that two Almaty region residents had been arrested and charged with participation in the banned Islamic group Tablighi Jamaat.

Islamic groups have been under increased scrutiny from the Kazakh authorities since a suspected Islamist militant carried out the country's first-ever suicide bombing in the northwestern city of Aqtobe in 2011.

Based on reporting by KazTAG and Tengrinews