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Thursday, 15 May 2003
KAZAKH OPPOSITION LEADER PARDONED BY NAZARBAEV OPTS OUT OF POLITICS
By empty (5/15/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Mukhtar Abliyazov, a former energy minister and a founder of the opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) coalition who was jailed in 2002 on charges of abuse of office and who was pardoned this week by President Nursultan Nazarbaev , announced on 14 May that he is leaving politics and going into business, RFE/RL\'s Kazakh Service. Abliyazov said he has withdrawn from DVK because he no longer shares its positions, and he insisted that his release from prison was not connected to his decision to leave the coalition. Abliyazov also sought to smooth over a dispute between his lawyer and the opposition newspaper \"SolDat\" over publication of what were alleged to be chapters of a book he wrote, saying that he did not blame the newspaper for anything and that he might publish something in future.
Mukhtar Abliyazov, a former energy minister and a founder of the opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) coalition who was jailed in 2002 on charges of abuse of office and who was pardoned this week by President Nursultan Nazarbaev , announced on 14 May that he is leaving politics and going into business, RFE/RL\'s Kazakh Service. Abliyazov said he has withdrawn from DVK because he no longer shares its positions, and he insisted that his release from prison was not connected to his decision to leave the coalition. Abliyazov also sought to smooth over a dispute between his lawyer and the opposition newspaper \"SolDat\" over publication of what were alleged to be chapters of a book he wrote, saying that he did not blame the newspaper for anything and that he might publish something in future. (RFE/RL)