Kazakh court accused
Yermurat Bapi: "I will not ask you to review my
case"
To: Almaty City Court
From: Convict Yermurat Bapi
Editor-in-Chief, Soldat newspaper
Sirs,
Undoubtedly, you must be in the know of criminal case No. 1-568/03
opened against me by the Almaty financial police, on the basis of which the Medeusky
district court reached its verdict in just 5 or 6 sittings.
I have already expressed my opinion regarding all this. I have nothing
to add to that (my statement has been included in the materials of my case). Frankly
speaking, I have neither time nor intention to speak about it any more.
But it has turned out that court rules dictate me to address to you
with a few words. I seem to have to say something for the Medeusky court ruling to take
effect.
For this reason only I have taken time to write this letter. You may
read it to the end. If you value your time too, please feel free to do as you wish. As for
me, it's important to say just something.
It's hard to find words to explain what the Kazakh court is like. To be
a defendant is hardly a pleasure, and it's even harder to find oneself in the prisoners'
dock when you are innocent.
To be honest I have no desire to complain or to seek justice. Justice
died long ago in our country, when the Constitution was being adopted. You are unable to
help it rise from the ashes.
That's why I cannot insist that I receive a fair trial. You are not to
blame for what has happened. Justice has been nipped in the bud. The history will
eventually put everything in its rightful place.
Our civil duty is to be honest in the face of the History. Our
generation needs this in the first place. We should ensure that our sons and daughter will
not have to flee the country to save their face like the innocent children of the KGB
officer Karasarov who had killed Shakarim Kudaiberdiyev. In our environment, when
everything has been concentrated in the hands of just one person, it's enough just to want
to be honest.
In one word, I disagree with the charges brought against me or with the
ruling the court rushed to reach.
I am not guilty in the face of the people and in the face of God!
That's all!
In spite of this I will not ask you to revise my case. There is no need
for this! I feel it will be useless. I know you can do very little. They will just not
allow you to do anything!
I have known from the very beginning what is in store for me. I have
spoken for the people who wish to be free and independent. That's why I have been
convicted. But I am not going to give up. I could allow myself self-indulgence or could
complain to anyone but not to the Kazakh court.
No way…
There's no need to waste your precious time to revise my case. It's
curious that it had taken the court two month to consider my case. Wasn't it better to
spend this time hearing other, more important cases?
For instance, it could have make sense open cases regarding the
revenues stashed in foreign accounts or the Kazakhgate. Or just recall scores of
violations reported during the past elections! Why not hear these cases in courts instead?
So there are a lot of other cases to review indeed. I don't want the
judges to waste their precious time on me.
I think I would ask to revise my case later, when everything will take
its proper place. It won't take long. I will wait.
I don't doubt that, like in our parable, the today's courts will
eventually follow either the jackass or the Padishah …
One way or the other, I say to you goodbye until the better times!
Yermurat BAPI
November 27, 2003
(Translated from Kazakh)
navi.kz, December 8, 2003 |
