(Alma Ata, February 12) - Bakythan Abirov, 34 years old human rights activist from Alma Ata, member of Radical Party, was sentenced this morning to 10 days of imprisonment for "illegal meeting".

This Radical activist was arrested yesterday while collecting signatures on the street under Radical Party's petitions for alternative civilian service, against death penalty and for United States of Europe. Another Radical member from Kazakhstan and activist of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) Zijahan Shajgeldinov who was sentenced in Alma Ata one week ago to 50 roubles of money fee for the same actions declared: "Political actions of any kind - collecting of signatures, demonstrations, political hunger strikes, even oral agitation in public sites - are prohibited now in our city. Bakythan Abirov is a political prisoner and it is necessary to fight for his freeing."