In this March 29, 2018, photo, Serikzhan Bilash, a prominent activist campaigning against Chinese internment camps, speaks to a crowd of Kazakhs at a restaurant in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Bilash was arrested by Kazakh police at an Almaty hotel on Sunday, March 10, 2019 and taken to Astana, Kazakhstan's capital. The detention of hundreds of thousands and possibly over a million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities in China's far west has been a touchy issue in neighboring Kazakhstan. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
March 11, 2019 - 9:08 AM
MOSCOW - A court in Kazakhstan has placed a prominent activist campaigning for the release of ethnic Kazakhs in China under house arrest.
Serikzhan Bilash, head of the advocacy group Atajurt, was detained in the Kazakh business capital, Almaty, and whisked out of town.
Aiman Umarova, Bilash's lawyer, told The Associated Press late on Monday that her client had resurfaced in the capital, Astana, where a court placed him under house arrest for two months. Umarova said Bilash has been accused of "inciting ethnic hatred."
The detention of possibly more than a million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities in Chinese internment camps has been a touchy issue in neighbouring Kazakhstan, for which China is a major trading partner.
Bilash's group has been actively supporting the relatives of those who have been detained in China.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019