testifying party (submitted by third party)

Testimony 1-2: Zhenis Akzhan (born in 1996), migrated to Kazakhstan in 2009 and became a Kazakh citizen in 2016.

victim's relation to testifier

Testimony 1-2: The victim is the testifier's mother.

about the victim

Kenzhegül Zhumazhan (DOB: August 26, 1966), Chinese citizen, has residence permit in Kazakhstan since 2017. Had her passport confiscated upon returning to China in August 2017. She had health and lung problems, and had an operation (presumably, this happened in China). Her husband was taking care of her when he was detained. Her children had the opportunity to contact her a few times during this process. She had told them that she was going to be taken to a camp after she was to be released from the hospital, after which she was detained on April 25 of this year. As far as her son knows, she was allowed to stay in the hospital for five days (unclear when exactly) because of her worsening health in the camp, but was sent back after the 5 days. At that point they [friends/relatives] lost track of her.

Kazakhstan Residence Permit no. 024172746

current location

Unclear.

chronology of detention(s)

Passport confiscated in August 2017. Taken to camp April 25, 2018.

Testimony 2: Passport confiscated on August 20, 2017, when she was coming back to China to organize a second wedding. She was arrested on April 25, 2018.

suspected and/or official reason(s) for detention

Unclear.

last reported status

November 22, 2018: Turkey-based scholar Mehmet Volkan reports hearing from victim's friends/relatives that she has been released.

November 25, 2018: M. Volkan says that she hasn't actually been released.

December 2, 2018: M. Volkan confirms she has been released and is at home.

how testifier(s) learned of victim's situation

Presumably through friends/relatives.

additional information

From Mehmet Volkan: "On November 15, I gave an interview in Turkish and mentioned their names. Then they [friends/relatives of detained] sent me their stories and I have translated into Turkish and told them I was going to contact international authorities. If you understand Kazakh, this is what they said: "I have sent this (the post) to my relatives and told them Volkan is going to internationalize the issue. After that we heard the happy news"."

Turkish blog mention: https://falancamesele.wordpress.com/2018/11/22/kazak-arkadasimin-toplama-kamplarina-alinan-akrabalari-icin-yardim-cagrisi/

relatives

supplementary materials

entry created on: 2018-11-23

entry last modified on: 2018-11-23

last update from testifier(s): 2018-12-10