III. The Right to Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion

According to the government's 2007 "Baseline Report on Human Rights in Kazakhstan," published by the Human Rights Commission under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the nation is home to about 4o religious confessions and nearly 4,000 registered religious communities, and the majority of the population is Muslim or Russian Orthodox.[17] The report states that "the country has an environment promoting the peaceful coexistence of all of these communities based on continued dialogue, which is initiated and supported by the government."[18]

In practice, official intolerance-especially toward smaller religious groups-is on the rise. For example, at the end of 2006 President Nazarbaev issued a decree stating that the people of Kazakhstan should avoid "non-traditional" religions.[19] On January 17, 2008, Nazarbaev said during a public address at a meeting of the ruling Nur Otan party that "it is necessary to cut the activities of illegal religious movements in Kazakhstan. Currently, tens of thousands of missionary organizations are working in Kazakhstan. We do not know their goals and tasks and we should not tolerate such arbitrariness." He declared that "religion is separate from the state, but it does not mean that Kazakhstan should become a dumping ground for various religious movements."[20]

The authorities increasingly tend to single out minority religious groups that are characterized as "sects" and/or "non-traditional" such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishna devotees, or independent Muslims (people whose Muslim affiliations, beliefs, and practices are at variance with those acceptable to the Religious Administration of Kazakhstan's Muslims, and are branded as "extremist."[21]) The prevailing official practice, as well as proposed amendments to the "Law on freedom of religion and religious associations" (see below), aim more at controlling and harassing "non-traditional" groups than at fostering peaceful coexistence.

Legal Provisions

Freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief is among the core OSCE human dimension commitments.[22] As noted in the 1975 Helsinki "Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between Participating States,"

The participating States will respect ... the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.... Within this framework the participating States will recognize and respect the freedom of the individual to profess and practice, alone or in community with others, religion or belief acting in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience.[23]

In the subsequent three decades, this commitment has been reiterated and advanced at several OSCE summits. For example, in Budapest in 1994 the Participating States reaffirmed their commitment "to ensure freedom of conscience and religion and to foster a climate of mutual tolerance and respect between believers of different communities as well as between believers and non believers,"[24] and in Istanbul in 1999 they committed themselves "to counter such threats to security as violations of ... the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief...."[25] As future OSCE chair, Kazakhstan has a particular responsibility to take these commitments seriously.

Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees individuals' right to hold and to manifest their religious beliefs. It states,

Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching. No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.[26]

The article further provides that "freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others."[27] The UN Human Rights Committee's General Comment 22 to Article 18 specifies that freedom of thought, including freedom of conscience and religious conviction, is a right that cannot be limited.[28]

Article 27 of the ICCPR states, "In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language."

 The Kazakh Constitution contains the following rights guarantees:

·Article 22, which states, "[E]veryone shall have the right to freedom of conscience. The implementation of the right to freedom of conscience shall not entail or limit universal human and civil rights and responsibilities before the state.[29]

·Article 39, paragraph 3, which explicitly forbids subjecting the right to freedom of conscience to "any restrictions in any event."[30]

In 1992 the Kazakh parliament adopted the "Law on freedom of religion and religious association" (hereinafter, law on religion). Ten years later, in April 2002, when the government was trying to amend the law, Kazakhstan's Constitutional Council decided that the proposed amendments were at variance with the constitution. If adopted, the amendments to the law on religion would have allowed unregistered religious groups to be banned; required all missionaries to be registered; and denied legal registration to all Muslim organizations outside the framework of the Religious Administration of Kazakhstan's Muslims.[31]

In February 2005 President Nazarbaev signed the laws "On combating extremism" and "Introducing changes and amendments to several legislative documents in the Republic of Kazakhstan on issues relating to combat extremist activities," which introduced provisions similar to those about which the Constitutional Council had raised objections. In July 2005 he signed a law introducing amendments and additions to legislation on the grounds of increasing "national security." This included amendments to the law on religion which, among other things, forbade the activity of unregistered religious communities and required registration for missionary activities.[32]

The New Draft Law on Religion

Another draft law on religion has been making its way through parliament in 2008, and local human rights groups and minority religious communities are alarmed by its provisions to penalize "unapproved" religious activities.

The draft law, "On introducing changes and additions to certain legislative acts on issues of freedom of religion and religious associations," (hereinafter, draft religion law) was originally submitted to the parliament in January 2007, but in June it was withdrawn by the government. Local human rights groups believe the government took this step because of the upcoming decision on the OSCE chairmanship.[33] The initiative resurfaced in 2008; on June 11 the Majilis (lower chamber of the parliament) approved it on the first reading. In October 2008 the Senate returned the draft to the Majilis for further consideration. At this writing, the draft religion law is in the Majilis.

The day before the first reading, a confidential legal review made by the ODIHR Advisory Panel on Freedom of Religion or Belief was sent to the government of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had made an official request for the review on May 16, 2008. The review's findings are confidential, but could be made public at the government's discretion. An exchange of comments on the review between the Ministry of Justice's Committee on Religious Affairs and the ODIHR, has also remained confidential.

The draft amendments to the 1992 law on religion would establish a two-tier system for official recognition of religious communities, dividing them into two types: religious groups, which have no status as a legal person and therefore very limited rights, and religious associations, which must have 50 members or more in a given locality.[34] A religious association would be the only legally recognized entity for religious communities, thus penalizing small communities or congregations. The draft religion law would require all communities to reregister within 18 months of the law's entry into force.[35]

Religious "groups" (that is, those with fewer than 50 members in a given locality), would, under the draft religion law, be allowed to meet and pray together only at private places. They would not have the right to engage in missionary work or to rent buildings "that are widely accessible" for the purpose of worship.[36] Religious "groups" must register with local authorities, though the terms of this registration are not set out in the draft law.

Under the draft religion law, any religious activity carried out by a member of a local religious association beyond the locality (city, province, etc.) where the religious association is registered is considered missionary work. Anyone can carry out missionary work if he or she has a state registration to do so. Notably, the version of the draft the Senate sent the Majilis drops previous drafts' provisions allowing only members of religious associations to engage in missionary work and establishing an annual quota for missionaries. But one unjustifiable restriction that remains is the requirement that a registered missionary must secure the agreement of the local government to use any religious literature not submitted with his or her registration documents.[37]

A previous draft proposed a requirement for religious associations to have operated for 10 years in Kazakhstan in order to register, and to its credit, the latest draft of the religion law drops this requirement. The draft religion law would still, however, provide for differential treatment of religious associations based on the number of provinces in which they have adherents, which is another way of defining whether a community belongs to a traditional or "non-traditional" religion. In order to be registered as a national association, a religious association must have operated in at least five provinces of Kazakhstan without any violation of the law.[38] Even so, the distinction between religious communities has no justification and therefore would amount to discrimination against certain minority religious communities, violating Kazakhstan's obligations under international law.

The draft religion law's article 13 bans distribution of religious literature in state buildings and agencies, healthcare facilities, and on public transport. It would also ban people from going house-to-house to distribute religious materials. Significantly, the draft would effectively restrict the distribution of religious materials to specific circumstances and places, which are determined by local governments. This provision appears to be a violation of freedom of religion as it essentially turns this aspect of religious practice from a right (with only limited and necessary restrictions), to a limited privilege, that is only allowed to take place at the discretion of the government.

The draft religion law would prohibit religious associations from receiving donations from "unlawful sources," without clarifying what these are.[39]

The draft religion law has been widely criticized, both inside Kazakhstan and internationally. Evgeniy Zhovtis, director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, Roman Podoprigora, law professor at the Caspian Public University, and Ninel Fokina, chair of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, conclude in their 59-page analysis of the draft religion law that it:

• Is oriented toward restricting rights and establishing a licensing regime;
• Is based on a "presumption of guilt" on the part of religious groups;
• Is open to arbitrary interpretation by the authorities; and
• Restricts rights in ways that fully or partly do not fall within the range of reasonable limits on rights provided for in international law.[40]

The Association of Religious Organizations in Kazakhstan (AROK),[41] an officially registered organization representing about 600 mainly Protestant communities, sees the draft religion law as a "real threat to religious tolerance, and a real threat to the stability of the country as a result."[42]

On July 17, 2008, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a statement expressing its "deep concern" over the draft religion law in that it "would significantly weaken protections for human rights, including religious freedom."Felice Gaer, chair of the commission, said, "The religion bill threatens Kazakhstan's international obligations as a nation to safeguard religious freedom and non-discrimination. Kazakhstan appears to be following the lead of other former Soviet republics that are narrowing the space for religious freedom rather than bolstering protections for it."[43]

Problems of Small Religious Communities

As noted above, Kazakhstan has about 40 religious communities. Among the smaller religious communities in Kazakhstan include evangelical Christians and other Protestants, independent Muslims, Catholics, Buddhists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientologists.[44] Even aside from the draft religion law, such communities already face a variety of challenges, such as hostile treatment by the media and the authorities, harassment by the police, and various administrative hurdles.

Scapegoating in the media

Representatives of religious groups and human rights activists whom Human Rights Watch interviewed in spring and summer 2008 reported that Kazakhstan's mass media started to write about "sects" and "non-traditional" religious groups about half a year before the draft religion law was sent to parliament.

An example of the kind of coverage this involved was a major two-page article published on April 16, 2008, in the newspaper Avitrek-Region from Karaganda, titled "Victims of sects lose property and health." The article starts by stating that in 2007 and 2008, 50 leaders and members of "non-traditional" religious associations were charged with criminal or administrative offenses, and 13 persons were deported from Kazakhstan because of illegal "missionary activities." It then quotes the Office of the Prosecutor General saying that "currently Kazakhstan has 1,870 religious organizations whose activities are a threat to national security and stability."[45]

Alexander Klyushev from AROK is concerned about the scapegoating of certain Christian groups:

I can see that there is a very negative opinion toward evangelical Christians, especially in the south and west parts of Kazakhstan. I can see this in the media when they publish negative articles on evangelical and Protestant churches calling them sectarians. There are a lot of activities by the local authorities, accusing religious association[s] without cause of espionage and agitation for religious dissension. We see what is going on and we find it very disturbing.[46]

According to Yuri Timofeev, head of the Lutheran church in Astana, the media campaign against religious groups started in winter 2007 and continued through spring 2008. One aspect of the campaign was the expanded use of the term "non-traditional religions." Widely circulated articles were calling for religious organizations "to leave" Kazakhstan because they were "problematic." The articles were anti-Protestant and hostile to non-traditional Islamic believers, in other words those who worship along lines not approved by the Religious Administration of Kazakhstan's Muslims.[47] Timofeev noted wryly, "It's as if it was decided that non-traditional religions pose a security threat to spiritual health."[48]

Denial of registration, police raids, and inspections

Several religious communities reported obstruction by registration authorities and harassment by the police. For example, a group of Jehovah's Witnesses[49] in Atyrau province has been trying to register for seven years, and say they have been refused on petty grounds time after time. On their fifth attempt, they were refused because they allegedly failed to provide the office phone numbers of their members. "But many of them are pensioners and do not have an office phone," a representative of the Jehovah's Witness Religious Center in Almaty told Human Rights Watch. A sixth attempt at registration was made in January 2008, and when interviewed in July, the representative noted that "so far we have only received a very interesting letter, saying that the Atyrau authorities have too few specialists in their province to be able to adequately consider applications for accreditation."[50] The application was denied in September because, according to one of the Jehovah's Witnesses representatives, the identification document of one of the founding members had expired.[51]

The representative also said that the authorities apparently do have sufficient staff to harass the community. On May 6, 2007, officials of the Atyrau province prosecutor's office conducted a raid during a prayer gathering in the home of one of the Jehovah's Witnesses. They charged the six participants with illegally conducting worship without registration, and all six received administrative fines. The Jehovah's Witnesses contested the ruling, but in both appeals the first court's verdicts were upheld. A year later, in 2008, the authorities raided another prayer meeting of the same six people, plus two others. Each person was charged with illegally conducting worship and fined 58,400 tenge (the equivalent of US$500), with the exception of the person whom authorities identified as the group's leader, who was fined double that amount.[52]

In Kyzylorda province the Jehovah's Witnesses community is registered. But on March 22, 2008, the procuracy raided a prayer meeting they held in a rented location. The authorities let the participants finish their prayers and then filed administrative charges against them for not gathering at the community's official address. In late May the court decided to halt the activities of the community for six months, and this decision was upheld on appeal. "For six months this community has [had] no rights at all," said a representative of the Jehovah's Witnesses Religious Center. "They can neither meet at a private place nor anywhere else."[53]

The Karaganda mission of the Scientology Church[54] underwent two financial audits in spring 2008, one in April and one in May. In addition to checking the group's financial records, the Ministry of Justice sent its operating statute for an expert analysis. Then the mission was told to reregister as a commercial organization on grounds that Scientology is not a religion but an "applied religious philosophy." This is applying a new standard, as the same statute was accepted without problems when the mission registered in 2000. The decision also applied retroactively; it meant that this particular Scientology mission must pay back taxes for the last several years, because its status as a non-taxable religious organization was effectively revoked. So far the other four missions in Kazakhstan have not faced the same problem.[55]

Problems for the Grace Church started on August 24, 2007, when police raided its buildings as well as the apartments of its followers in Karaganda.[56] "The police seized all kinds of data carriers-computers, flashsticks, CDs," Dmitry Kan, bishop of the National Missionary Christian Center Grace in Karaganda, told Human Rights Watch. Church members were accused of spying, possessing psychotropic drugs, inciting inter-religious enmity, and tax fraud.

Bishop Kan emphasized, "To date, not a single criminal or administrative case has been opened based on the results of this raid. But the media had reported extensively about the accusations and damaged our image."[57] For example, the Noviy Vestnik newspaper published an article titled "Church spying scandal" three weeks after the raid-reporting that the provincial procuracy had officially "stated its interest" in the activities of Grace Church.[58]

Other raids followed in Almaty on January 25 and Kyzylorda on April 15, 2008. The Grace Church has been trying to register a branch in Atyrau for four years without success.[59]

Crackdown on missionaries

A key point of friction between the authorities and small religious groups is missionary activity. This is not a new development; restrictions on missionary activity were part of the proposed amendments to the religion law in 2002. Declared unconstitutional then, the restrictions were nevertheless adopted in 2005. A newly added article 4.1 of the religion law requires all citizens and foreigners engaged in missionary activity to register annually with the Ministry of Justice. They must provide information on religious affiliation, name the territory or territories in which they will carry out their missionary work, and state the time period for conducting that work. All literature and other materials to be used to support missionary work must be provided with the registration application; the use of materials not vetted during the registration process is illegal. In addition, a missionary must produce registration documents, and a power of attorney, from the sponsoring religious organization to be allowed to work on its behalf. The article specifically bans all missionary activity by any individual who does not have a registration.[60] The amendments regarding missionary activity in the new draft law on religion further tighten these restrictions, as noted above.

As of July 2008 according to the Ministry of Justice, 362 foreign missionaries from various religious movements were working in Kazakhstan.[61]

Beginning in 1999 Kazakh authorities have detained several dozen people suspected of Islamic "fundamentalism," and representatives of religious communities have told Human Rights Watch that in summer 2008 the authorities started a crackdown on Islamic missionaries.[62] For example, in Akmola province, eight missionaries were accused of terrorism and put on trial. Anara Ibraeva, director of the Astana branch of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, who met with one of the defendants and monitored the case, said it was a travesty: "There were so many violations, so many mistakes in the court documents. It was unbelievable."[63] It is not clear what, if any, specific act of terrorism the group was alleged to have plotted or committed. Ibraeva said that at trial at least five prosecution witnesses retracted their testimony, stating that it had been coerced by the security services, and that other witness testimony was secret and not aired in court. One of the defendants said all eight were hooded and beaten while being transferred between detention facilities, but there was no meaningful investigation into the incident. In February 2008 the eight were convicted on charges of terrorism, inciting ethnic enmity, unlawful possession of weapons, and unlawful preparation of weapons.

The website Ferghana.Ru reported the arrest of 17 Islamic missionaries-two from Russia, the rest from Uzbekistan-in Shymkent on August 8, 2008.[64] The men in the group were handed a 24-hour detention sentence and deportation for engaging in illegal missionary work; the women in the group were sentenced to a fine of about US$400 and deportation. The entire group was deported. The Interfax news service reported on July 27 that a missionary with Tabligi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary and revival movement, had been detained. The man, a Kyrgyz national, was charged with engaging in missionary work without being registered as a missionary. He was sentenced to 24 hours of misdemeanor detention and deportation; he was deported upon his release.[65]

On July 29, 2008, Minister of Justice Zagipa Baliyeva confirmed publicly that "a large number of foreigners from the United States, Georgia, South Korea, and Japan were expelled from the country by law enforcement authorities following court decisions for violating regulations while working as missionaries without the required registration." She mentioned explicitly the head of Narconon, an organization associated with the Church of Scientology that promotes a rehabilitation program for narcotic drug users, and seven groups of Tabligi Jamaat missionaries. In her press statement she also said the authorities had "revealed 27 instances of violation of the law on freedom of religion and religious organizations by heads of non-traditional religious organizations, including the possession of material containing propaganda of radical ideas and the teachings of non-traditional religions."[66]

Maksim Varfolomeev, public spokesman for Krishna Consciousness,[67] explained that it is very easy to accuse somebody of illegal missionary activities:

For example, Krishna Consciousness has registered six or seven communities in Kazakhstan. Every community can invite foreign guests to pray or teach, but this person cannot travel to one of the other communities to pray and teach there. If the Almaty community invites somebody this same person must separately register as a missionary with the authorities in Semipalatinsk when he is going to our community there. … I have to say that in recent months the number of deportations of foreigners rocketed upwards.[68]

Varfolomeev described the deportation of the Krishna Consciousness Central Asia director, a US national, who was invited by the community in Aktobe and then came to Almaty. He tried to register as a missionary with the authorities in Almaty but due to the lack of certain documents he was denied registration.

The authorities told him that he could not carry out missionary activities but could meet with other followers of Krishna Consciousness at home. So he cancelled his official program and stayed at [their homes]. One evening several followers of Krishna Consciousness came to visit him and after 15 minutes two officers from the Department of Combatting Terrorism, Separatism and Religious Extremism of the Ministry of Interior showed up and accused him of illegal missionary activities. They told him that one of his visitors had recorded his "singing" on a cell phone and this would be used as evidence. When he returned to Aktobe, the procuracy and the state security police (KNB) issued a decision to deny him reentry to Kazakhstan for five years. We did not receive a report or a court decision. We learned accidentally about this decision.[69]

In theory, illegal missionary activity carries the threat of first a warning, then a fine, and lastly deportation. But according to Varfolomeev, there are very few incidents in which individuals accused of missionary activity are given an official warning. Usually they are just deported.[70]

Yu Sup Bo, the pastor of the Agafe Protestant Church in the Karasay district of Almaty province, was facing deportation when Human Rights Watch visited in July 2008. A Korean national, Yu Sup Bo had been in Kazakhstan since the early 1990s and worked as a missionary since 2000. According to Vladimir Sadikov, a lawyer acting for Yu Sup Bo and her church, she had been accused of doing illegal missionary work. Sadikov had appealed the deportation order, and was awaiting the final decision. He saw the move against the pastor as a direct attempt to close the church, which had been facing other pressures also, as described below.[71]

Land and property disputes

Two religious groups-Krishna Consciousness and the Agafe Protestant Church-told Human Rights Watch in July that they were involved in land and property disputes with the authorities. Forum 18, a Christian initiative that reports on threats against religious freedom against any group, regardless of affiliation, reported in August that it was aware of six property cases against Christian and Muslim communities that were initiated since mid-June 2008 in Almaty province alone.[72]

The conflict about the land belonging to Krishna Consciousness in Almaty province has gone on for several years. There are two plots of contested land: a cooperative farm on one side of a road and, on the other, 60 small houses (dachas) that Krishna Consciousness bought in a private transaction and renovated between 1999 and 2003. In 2002, three Krishna Consciousness members bought the farm and registered Krishna Consciousness in Almaty province.

In 2003 the authorities made their first attempt at invalidating the Krishna Consciousness registration. In 2004, changing tactics, the authorities began arguing that the community could not remain because it was not farming, but conducting religious activities.[73]

From 2003 to 2006, moreover, the local mayor stalled the process by which Krishna Consciousness members could regularize the purchase of their dachas with the local government. He told them that he would privatize their dachas if they formally wrote out a statement that they were not members of Krishna Consciousness. When a group of Krishna Consciousness members collectively complained to the mayor in 2006 he responded by accusing them of using their dachas inappropriately and of not having state registration for the houses. Also in 2006 the local government won a lawsuit on claims that Krishna Consciousness had illegally acquired the land.[74] Subsequently, 26 dachas were seized and bulldozed-12 of them in November 2006 and 14 in June 2007. In addition, the authorities seized 116 acres of farm land. Varfolomeev believes that the land dispute is more than an economic matter because "in every claim you find the phrase that the dachas are use[d] as religious objects to host members of Krishna Consciousness."[75] The 2006 court ruling did not set out monetary compensation, and the Krishna Consciousness community received none.

After Krishna Consciousness complained to various international actors such as the OSCE, the Kazakh government started to announce they would offer the community an alternative location for its shrine and farm. First Krishna Consciousness was offered a site in the desert, 70 kilometers away from Almaty, where there were no roads, electricity, or schools. When they refused, they were offered two other sites, one of them an abandoned cemetery, the other a land tract a fraction of the size of the land they occupy now and being used by local villages as a garbage dump. The site is recognized as an "industrial zone." Krishna Consciousness did not agree to this offer either, although they were being pressured by the authorities to sign a contract before the session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Astana in early July 2008. Varfolomeev commented, "We could feel that the pressure became stronger the closer the session came, and it was clear that they needed our signature so that they could say the conflict was solved."[76] Krishna Consciousness continues to dispute the land seizure in court; at this writing the trial had been twice postponed and was scheduled to resume on November 25.[77]

The Agafe Protestant Church in Karasay district of Almaty province is currently also at risk of losing its property. In 1997 the mission purchased land from the previous owner; it then transferred ownership again in 2000 to the church. On this land, the building that the church is currently using is a former "house of culture." According to the church's lawyer, when the mission bought the land and building had fallen into disuse: people were stealing bricks from the building and there was no electricity. The mission and later the church did some repair but the authorities want to seize the building because, they say, it is in such bad shape it poses a "danger to society." Another of the church's lawyers told Human Rights Watch that the church had installed new plumbing and electrical wiring, and that the building was in decent shape.[78] The lawyer Vladimir Sadikov said that people whom he identified as being close to the authorities approached him to buy him off and when he refused to accept their bribe, they threatened to break his legs.[79]

Independent Muslims

In 2005, on the grounds of combating terrorism, Kazakhstan's Supreme Court designated 11 international organizations as "terrorist," banning their activity in Kazakhstan.[80] All but one are Islamist organizations, such as al Qaeda and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.[81] Since then, a local human rights group has tried to get copies of the court decisions to learn the basis on which the organizations were declared terrorist and therefore illegal. The group has received only an "informal" response, to the effect that "the decisions cannot be made public because the Kazakh secret service decided the rulings would be for "internal use only."[82]

Also in 2005, Kazakhstan adopted its "Law on Extremism," which criminalizes membership in prohibited extremist organizations. According to article 1, extremism is defined as "the organizing and/or the carrying out of actions by a person, group of people or organization in the name of organizations that are formally recognized as extremist." Since the definition of extremism is, in effect, whatever the state wishes it to be, in theory the state could use it against any religious association. So far, Hizb ut-Tahrir is the only organization banned under the law. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an Islamic party with branches in many parts of the world, including the Middle East and Europe, which advocates for the peaceful restoration of the Caliphate in traditionally Muslim lands. In addition to Kazakhstan it is prohibited in several countries, including Uzbekistan and Russia.[83]

In December 2007 the Kazybek-bi district court of Karaganda sentenced 29 alleged Hizb ut-Tahrir members to between five and seven years' imprisonment. The defendants were found guilty of instigating social, racial, tribal or religious enmity (Criminal Code article 164, part 1) and participating in a banned religious and extremist organization in the territory of Kazakhstan (article 337-1, part 1).

According to Ninel Fokina of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, only two of the defendants had a defense lawyer of their choice. "Although the verdict was issued on December 27, 2007, the lawyers received it after the New Year holidays when the appeal period had nearly expired."[84] During a press conference at the end of March 2008, Fokina noted that the trial was closed to relatives, media, and public organizations and that it was difficult for lawyers, relatives, and human rights organizations to receive any official information on the case from the authorities.[85]