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Agence France-Presse

A court in Kazakhstan has sentenced a China expert to 10 years in prison for treason, the national security committee said on Thursday.
Konstantin Syroezhkin, 63, was an employee of the state-run Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies when his detention was reported earlier this year.
Although the national security committee, the KNB, did not say whom Syroezhkin was accused of spying for, rights activists citing law enforcement sources said his work with China was the focus of the case.
Galym Ageleuov, a well-known rights defender and acquaintance of Syroezhkin’s, said the academic had pleaded not guilty in court but would not be appealing the sentence.

“Our authorities accused him of spying on behalf of China. He refutes this accusation,” Ageleuov said.
He said the academic understood that “the KNB can easily pressure the court”.
“He understood that his punishment was a command from the top,” Ageleuov said.
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In May, dozens of academics signed an open letter to Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asking him to ensure transparency in the case.
Syroezhkin reportedly served as adviser to President Tokayev for a dissertation that the career diplomat and Chinese speaker who became president this year defended in Moscow in 2001.
Neighbouring China is a key economic partner for Kazakhstan which has described itself as the “buckle” in Beijing’s trillion-dollar belt and road trade and infrastructure project.
In Kazakhstan’s first election in almost 30 years, new boss looks like old boss
But hundreds of Kazakhs have taken to the streets in recent months to voice fears over Chinese investment in the oil-rich country.
The alleged mass detentions of ethnic Kazakhs in Beijing’s troubled Xinjiang region have also sparked public anger.
Tokayev, 66, became president after the shock resignation in March of long-ruling leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who spent three decades in the post and is still viewed as Kazakhstan’s top decision-maker.


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Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan jails China expert for 10 years for treason

Konstantin Syroezhkin. Photo: Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies

FILE In this file photo taken on Wednesday, May 29, 2019, Kazakhstan's acting President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrives to attend the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting in Nur-Sultan, the capital city of Kazakhstan. For the first time in nearly three decades of independence, Kazakhstan is holding a presidential election without Nursultan Nazarbayev on the ballot, but the longtime leader of the oil-rich Central Asian country casts a long shadow on the vote. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

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Kazakhstan’s new financial centre in the capital of Nur-Sultan. Photo: Facebook

Serikjan Bilash, fiery critic of Xinjiang crackdown, spared jail in Kazakhstan but must end anti-China activism

Activist Serikjan Bilash speaks to a crowd of Kazakhs at a restaurant in Almaty, Kazakhstan in March 2018. Photo: AP

FILE - In this March 29, 2018, file photo, Serikzhan Bilash, a prominent activist campaigning against Chinese internment camps, gestures as he speaks to The Associated Press at a restaurant in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The Kazakh activist Bilash who was on trial for inciting ethnic tensions has been freed after signing an admission of his guilt under pressure, an attorney said Friday. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Supporters of Serikzhan Bilash, who has campaigned for the release of ethnic Kazakhs in China, react in front of a court building in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Friday, Aug. 16, 2019. A Kazakh news report says the lawyer for a prominent activist on trial for inciting ethnic tensions says her client has been told to confess guilt or face prison. (AP Photo/Vladimir Tretyakov)

As Kazakhstan heads to the polls, new boss looks a bit like old boss

Kazakhstan's interim president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, looks set to be confirmed in the job. Photo: AP

FILE In this file photo taken on Monday, Jan. 23, 2017, Cars drive past the Byterek tower in the center of Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. For the first time in nearly three decades of independence, Kazakhstan is holding a presidential election without Nursultan Nazarbayev on the ballot, but the longtime leader of the oil-rich Central Asian country casts a long shadow on the vote. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

Kazakh ruling Nur Otan party activists and supporters attend a meeting with President and presidential candidate Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Nur-Sultan on June 7, 2019, ahead of Kazakhstan's presidential elections on June 9. (Photo by Stanislav FILIPPOV / AFP)

In this photo taken on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, police detain demonstrators during an anti-government protest in Almaty, Kazakhstan.For the first time in nearly three decades of independence, Kazakhstan is holding a presidential election without Nursultan Nazarbayev on the ballot, but the longtime leader of the oil-rich Central Asian country casts a long shadow on the vote. (Petr Trotsenko, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty via AP)

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While authorities did not say whom Konstantin Syroezhkin was accused of spying for, rights activists said his work with China was the focus of the case
Syroezhkin had pleaded not guilty but would not appeal the sentence, as he understood his punishment ‘was a command from the top’, said a Kazakh activist



Konstantin Syroezhkin had pleaded not guilty to spying charges but would not appeal the sentence, as he understood ‘his punishment was a command from the top’, said a Kazakh rights activist.


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