This 53-page report details government harassment of Kazakhstan's opposition through arbitrary criminal and misdemeanor charges and threats of job dismissal, in many cases aimed at preventing them from running for public office. Among those imprisoned were Galymzhan Zhakianov and Mukhtabar Ablizaov, the founding leaders of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, an opposition group formed in November 2001. Abliazov was released in May 2003. Also imprisoned and then released in 2003 was Sergei Duvanov, an opposition journalist and trenchant critic of government corruption.