The trial of human rights activist Abishev: everything starts all over again

On November 4, 2019, the appeals board for civil cases of the Shymkent city court reversed the judgment of the Abay district court on the lawsuit against human rights activist Zhanabek Abishev. The case was sent to the court of first instance for re-consideration by differently constituted bench.

Background: in 2018, Zh. Abishev sent several letters and appeals to government bodies with a request to pay attention to the situation in APPAK LLP (Atomprom department). The human rights activist’s alarm was caused by appeals of former employees of the company whose labor contracts were terminated after the arrival of the new general director A. Avdeev.

A.Avdeev  considered that the letters of the human rights activist disseminated information that was untrue and discredited his honor, dignity and business reputation. In January 2019, he filed a lawsuit against Zh. Abishev on  protection of non-property rights and  recovery of compensation for moral damage in the amount of 7 million tenge.

On June 24, 2019, the court partially upheld the lawsuit of the general director. Neither the plaintiff nor the defendant agreed with the decision.The hearings in the appellate board of the city court lasted for more than a month. Taken into consideration numerous procedural infraction of the plaintiff, the Shymkent City Court found it necessary to re-consider the lawsuit by differently constituted bench of the Abay District Court. Consideration of appeals was held in an open trial,  numerous supporters of Zh.Abishev , journalists, bloggers were present in the courtroom. Legal assistance to Zh. Abishev was provided by the lawyer of the Adil Soz Foundation Tamara Simakhina.