Kategorie: News

Ahead of the start of the trial of 19 activists from the Kazakhstani human rights group Atajurt, who are being prosecuted for taking part in a peaceful protest calling for the release of a detained Kazakhstani citizen in China, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, said:

“The Kazakhstani authorities must urgently step back from the reckless misuse of criminal law and do what international human rights standards plainly require: drop these baseless charges and immediately release all the detained Atajurt activists. Peaceful protest is not a crime simply because it makes those in power uncomfortable – even when that discomfort extends to displeasing a powerful geopolitical player such as China.”

Peaceful protest is not a crime simply because it makes those in power uncomfortable – even when that discomfort extends to displeasing a powerful geopolitical player such as China

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director

“The ‘incitement of hatred’ charges have once again been deployed as a blunt instrument to silence dissent, corrupting this safeguard against genuine incitement to violence or discrimination. The authorities must drop this prosecution and immediately release the activists.”

Background

The trial will begin on 23 January in the city of Taldykorgan. The activists are facing up to ten years’ imprisonment.

On 13 November 2025, the 19 activists were detained after staging a peaceful protest near the Kazakhstan-China border in the Almaty region. The protesters, all ethnic Kazakhs originally from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), were calling for the release of Alimnur Turganbay, a Kazakhstani citizen detained in China since July 2025 under unclear circumstances.

Following the protest, participants were initially accused of administrative offences, including “hooliganism,” and penalized with fines and short-term detention of up to 10 days. Shortly afterwards, and following a diplomatic note from the Chinese authorities, all 19 activists were charged under Article 174 of the Criminal Code for allegedly “inciting ethnic or national discord.” Thirteen were remanded in custody and six of them were placed under house arrest.

The Atajurt movement, which documents and amplifies testimonies of ethnic Kazakhs and other Turkic minorities subjected to repression in China, has faced sustained pressure since 2019, when its founder, Serikzhan Bilash, an ethnic Kazakh from XUAR, was prosecuted under Article 174, forcing him to flee Kazakhstan and later seek refuge in the United States.

The post Kazakhstan: Drop charges against Atajurt activists facing up to 10 years in prison for peaceful protest appeared first on Amnesty International.

The prosecution of Hong Kong activists for commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown is a further escalation in the authorities’ weaponization of national security laws to silence dissent, Amnesty International said today at the opening of the activists’ trial.

Lawyer Chow Hang-tung and trade unionist Lee Cheuk-yan have been detained for more than four years awaiting trial and face years’ more imprisonment on national security charges. Chow and Lee were members of the now disbanded Hong Kong Alliance, which organized the city’s annual Tiananmen Square candlelight vigil for more three decades until it was banned amid a clampdown on human rights.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people were killed when Chinese troops opened fire on protesters in and around Tiananmen Square, Beijing, on 4 June 1989.

“This case is not about national security – it is about rewriting history and punishing those who refuse to forget the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown,” said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director.

“Chow and Lee’s principal ‘crime’ has been to seek truth and justice for the protesters shot dead by Chinese troops and for the families left grieving. This cynical case against them is a clear illustration of how the Hong Kong government uses vague and overly broad national security laws as tools of repression.”

Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan were among the members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (Hong Kong Alliance) charged with “inciting subversion of state power” under the National Security Law in September 2021.

They have been held in pre-trial detention ever since, having been repeatedly denied bail, and face up to 10 years’ imprisonment if convicted. They have both been designated as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International.

Authorities said the annual Tiananmen vigil the Hong Kong Alliance had organized since 1990 was evidence of the group “endangering national security”.

Amnesty International has repeatedly raised concerns that Hong Kong’s National Security Law, enacted in June 2020, is being used to target civil society groups, journalists, political activists and academics for actions that are fully protected under international human rights law.

The organization calls on the Hong Kong authorities to drop all charges against members of the Hong Kong Alliance detained simply for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, repeal the National Security Law and respect and facilitate the peaceful commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown.

“History cannot be erased. Hong Kong’s courts now face a critical test: whether they will uphold human rights, or continue to lend judicial legitimacy to a sweeping crackdown on dissent,” Sarah Brooks said.

“Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan are prisoners of conscience, jailed simply for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.  The Hong Kong authorities must immediately and unconditionally release them.”

Background

On 4 June 1989, Chinese troops opened fire on students and workers who had been peacefully protesting for political reforms in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Hundreds – possibly thousands – of people were killed. Tens of thousands more were arrested across China in the suppression that followed.

In the 36 years since the crackdown, all discussion of the incident has been heavily censored in China, as authorities have effectively attempted to erase it from history. Public commemoration or mere mention of the Tiananmen crackdown is banned. 

While commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown was forbidden in mainland China, crowds reaching hundreds of thousands of people would gather annually in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to remember those killed. They called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the truth about what happened and accept accountability for the atrocity. 

The Hong Kong vigil was banned in 2020 and 2021, ostensibly on Covid-19 grounds, and since then repressive new laws such as the 2020 National Security Law have effectively criminalized peaceful protest in the city.

The post Hong Kong: Trial of Tiananmen activists a cynical attempt to erase historical memory appeared first on Amnesty International.