Suspended sentences for students over banned party leaflets

TALAS — The Talas District Court yesterday gave suspended prison sentences to three students convicted of distributing leaflets of the Jer-Suu Party, the nationalist party banned in 2008.

Prosecutors from the Attorney General’s office told the court that the three, aged between 19 and 21, had handed out several hundred leaflets near bus stops and university buildings in the city last autumn. The leaflets reproduced verses by the party’s exiled co-founder Tilek Sharshenov and called for the protection of pastures and water against mining leases. The prosecution had asked for custodial terms. The judge said she had taken into account the defendants’ ages and the absence of any call to violence. The Herald is not naming the students at the request of their families.

Jer-Suu held between two and four seats in the territorial House from 1996 to 2006. In April 2008 the Supreme Court banned it under the Extremist Activity Act, on an application from the Ministry of Internal Security, holding that it had taken part in armed rebellion in 2007. The OSCE and Human Rights Watch criticized the ruling as collective punishment of a lawful party. The party’s writings remain banned.

Defence lawyers said they had not decided whether to appeal.