Fourteen Kazakh Men Get Lengthy Prison Terms For Joining IS, Terror-Related Activities

NUR-SULTAN — A court in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, has sentenced 14 men to prison terms of between 8 and 14 years for various terror-related activities.

The sentences were handed down on December 11 after the court found the men, all of whom were brought from Syria earlier this year by Kazakh authorities, guilty of recruiting for a terrorist group, being members of a terrorist group, propagating terrorism, inciting hatred, and illegally distributing literature that propagated violence.

One of the men took part in the six-week trial via a video-link as he is partially paralyzed because of a combat injury and is being treated in a hospital.

All of the men pleaded “partially guilty,” meaning they accepted guilt for some of the offenses, but did not specify which ones.

Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee told RFE/RL earlier that in all, 824 Kazakh nationals, including 57 men, 220 women, and 547 children, had been brought from Syria, of whom 44 ppeople, including 10 women, were sentenced to prison terms of between one and 11 years on terrorism-related charges.