Azimzhan Askarov’s prison term not reduced
A criminal case of sentenced to life in prison human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov is being considered in Chui Regional Court based on newly discovered facts.
The lawyers and the prisoner asked the court to review the term of imprisonment in connection with the entry into force of the new Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, which provide for decriminalization and directed, according to its developers, to humanization. But the court refused, considering the arguments of the defense insufficient.
The judges stressed that Askarov was accused, in particular, of organizing murder of a police officer, and under the new Criminal Code this crime provides for life imprisonment.
Azimzhan Askarov was sentenced to life imprisonment. He is accused of inciting ethnic hatred and murder of a policeman during the June events in the south of the republic in 2010.
