OPEN STATEMENT
Estbalished today, September 4, 2009, the Public Committee of Support of Evgeny Zhovtis declares the following:
1. To consider the 3rd September trial of the case of the well-known human rights defender Evgeny Zhovtis to be unlawful and politically provoked.
2. From the moment of the announcement of the verdict, to consider Evgeny Zhovtis a political prisoner based on that the prosecution has abused the tragedy of the road traffic accident with the purpose of punishing Evgeny for his nearly twenty-year-long human rights work.
3. The prosecution had falsified the evidence of violation by Evgeny Zhovtis of the traffic rules, which caused his unlawful conviction on the charge of Article 296, part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
4. This guilty verdict is nothing else but a criminal prosecution for a guiltless damage, which is contradiction to the current Criminal Code of Kazakhstan.
5. The trial of Evgeny Zhovtis was conducted with blatant violations of the norms of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the rules of the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally
Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (known as the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders) and other international human rights obligations of Kazakhstan.
Based on the above-said, the Committee demands:
1. A prompt revision and annulment of this court’s verdict in a court of appeal.
2. Holding an independent investigation and international examination of the case of Evgeny Zhovtis.
Almaty, 4 September 2009
