The Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law issued a statement on the case of arbitrarily detained Karim Massimov.
In response to the decision of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Bureau states that the opinion “indicates gross violations of international fair trial standards.”
The Bureau calls “on the authorities to ensure maximum openness of court proceedings against these persons, as well as all proceedings on “January events,” in compliance with international obligations of the Republic of Kazakhstan with regard to guarantees of right to protection, independence and impartiality of the court and ensuring equality and adversarial of the parties.
We also recall that according to article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (On the Right to a Fair Trial), ratified by the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is part of national law and has priority over the criminal procedure legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the courts have the right to prevent the entire public or part of it for reasons of morality, public order (ordre public). In the absence of such exceptional circumstances, the proceedings should be open to the general public, including representatives of the media, and should not, for example, be limited to a certain category of persons.
Even when the public is denied access to trial, a court order, including basic conclusions, evidence and legal reasoning, should be made public (…) International guarantees of the right to a fair trial concern all accused (defendants) in all cases, in connection with which we call on the authorities of Kazakhstan to strictly comply with their international obligations in this area.”
