The Chinese authorities disappeared Alimnur Turganbay on 23 July 2025. A Chinese-born ethnic Kazakh, Kazakh citizen and Kazakh resident, he had spoken out about a relative and two others given long jail terms in Xinjiang for praying. Turganbay's wife, Guldaria Sherizat, took part in a 19-strong demonstration in Almaty Region on 13 November 2025 protesting against her husband's detention. The following day, police lodged criminal cases against all 19 participants, including Sherizat. The trial is due to begin in Taldykorgan on the afternoon of 23 January 2026.

"It's been four months since Alimnur was captured by these Chinese," the subsequent indictment quotes Sherizat as telling fellow-protesters. "Since then, these Chinese have not given us any concrete answers. That's why I will not stop my opposition to the Chinese until Alimnur is released." Other protesters also spoke out about Turganbay's case and also raised wider concerns about the Chinese regime's treatment of the ethnic Kazakh minority (see below).

Several of the protesters then burnt three Chinese flags and one portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping. It appears that Sherizat did not actively take part in holding or lighting the flags or portrait. Uyghur District Police soon arrived (see below).

Sherizat insists the protest was peaceful. "We could not remain silent. Therefore, we were forced to make a direct appeal to the Chinese authorities" (see below).

"All the female participants received administrative fines, while most male participants were detained from 7 to 15 days," the family told Forum 18 (see below).

The day after the demonstration, the Chinese authorities wrote to Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry expressing "deep concern", according to the indictment. "Taking into account the political mutual trust between the two countries, the High Representative asks the Government to pay close attention to it and take appropriate measures based on the results of a thorough investigation" (see below).

The 19 defendants were then charged with "inciting national discord against the Chinese people and insulting the national honour and dignity of citizens, in a premeditated conspiracy with a group of people, using the mass media", according to the indictment seen by Forum 18. They face from five to 10 years' imprisonment if convicted. The 13 men were put in pre-trial detention, while the six women were put under house arrest (see below).

The duty officer at Uyghur District Police refused to answer any questions about the police action at the demonstration. He said the District Police chief Erlik Urkimbayev was out of the office and no one else could discuss the police action. Neither Captain M. Orazgaziyev – who prepared the indictment - nor officials at Uyghur District Prosecutor's Office answered the phones each time Forum 18 called (see below).

It remains unclear why the trial was transferred to Taldykorgan, over 300 kms and four hours by road from Sherizat's home. The Judge's secretary said the Judge had decided this, but refused to say why (see below).

"We don't know why they've transferred the case to a court in a different Region," Almaty-based lawyer Shinkuat Baizhanov, who is representing all 19 defendants, told Forum 18. He insists the case is illegal as the participants have already been punished under the Administrative Code. "Under the Constitution, individuals cannot be punished twice for the same thing" (see below).

Sherizat's family say the case is a freedom of religion case, as she advocated for her husband who had defended his nephew who had been jailed for exercising freedom of religion or belief in Xinjiang. They say the others did too. "The cases of the other 18 people are also related to freedom of religion or belief," the family insist (see below).

Religious restrictions for Xinjiang's ethnic Kazakhs

In May 2014, Chinese regime launched what it termed a "Strike Hard" campaign to combat alleged terrorist threats, which it linked to religious "extremism" and separatism in the north-western province of Xinjiang. Many have been imprisoned in "re-education" camps.

The Chinese regime's restrictions on the rights of non-ethnic Chinese in Xinjiang have mainly targeted the Uyghur population. But they also target Xinjiang's 1.5 million strong ethnic Kazakh community, the second-largest Turkic population.

"The 'Strike Hard' campaign has led to the adoption or amendment of various legal instruments to further tighten the regulation of religion," the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights noted in an August 2022 report. "Religious activities are allowed only in Government-approved locations, conducted by Government-accredited personnel, and on the basis of Government-approved teachings and publications."

The UN report noted the closure and demolition of mosques and the attempts to eradicate many Muslim practices that "in themselves constitute exercise of protected fundamental freedoms connected to the enjoyment of cultural and religious life".

Many ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang have migrated in recent decades to Kazakhstan, where they can easily settle and obtain Kazakh citizenship. Many in the community in Kazakhstan have voiced public concern over violations of the rights of ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang. The Kazakh regime has been nervous about these complaints and has tried to suppress them.

Jailed in Xinjiang

The Chinese authorities arrested Serik Dauitbek, a member of Xinjiang's ethnic Kazakh minority and a Muslim, in March 2018. They arrested two other local ethnic Kazakhs at the same time. In June 2018, the three were jailed, apparently for about 17 years each, for praying and reading the Koran, according to human rights defenders. Family members do not appear to have been given copies of any written court decision.

Advocating for his nephew

Alimnur Turganbay (born 15 April 1977), Serik Dauitbek's uncle, is from Yining County in Xinjiang's Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. In August 2016, he moved with his wife and three children from China to Kazakhstan. They obtained Kazakh citizenship in 2017. The family settled in the village of Uzynagash in Jambyl District of Almaty Region. He renounced Chinese citizenship in 2018. Turganbay supports his family as a long-distance lorry driver.

On 24 January 2019, Turganbay filmed an appeal for his jailed nephew and the two other men jailed with him. The Atajurt (Fatherland) group, which campaigns for the rights of China's ethnic Kazakhs, posted the video on YouTube.

Turganbay later felt safe to revisit China for the first time since he left in 2017. On 23 July 2025, working as a lorry driver, he crossed the border to collect building materials to transport to Uzbekistan. Chinese border officials detained him at the Dulata (Dula) border crossing while allowing other Kazakh drivers through. For months Chinese officials gave no information to relatives about why they had detained him or what his subsequent fate was.

"The Chinese side said that a court hearing was held and a sentence of 2 years, 6 months was issued, but we have not seen any written judgment or official document," Turganbay's family told Forum 18 on 19 January 2026. "They also refuse to provide any paper records to our relatives there."

"The Chinese arrested Alimnur because he defended his jailed nephew," Sherizat's lawyer Shinkuat Baizhanov told Forum 18 from Almaty on 19 January 2026.

Fellow ethnic Kazakh migrants from Xinjiang living in Uzynagash have supported the family.

"I have been a neighbour of this family for 25 years, first over there, now over here," said Nazira Baizhuma, another Yining County native, told Chris Rickleton and Beiimbet Moldagali in an article for Freedom for Eurasia in August 2025. "Alimnur is a kindhearted and hard-working man. He doesn't drink, doesn't smoke. In China, he was not attached to any religious organizations. Everything that he has achieved, he has achieved with his own hard work."

Another Uzynagash resident, Yeleusiz Aidarkhan, supported her character assessment. "Day and night his children are crying, not sleeping," he told Freedom For Eurasia. "The smile has disappeared from their faces and they feel grief. We have come here today to ask you to help us find him."

Advocating for her husband

Immediately after Alimnur Turganbay's July 2025 arrest on the Chinese border, his wife Guldaria Sherizat (born 10 September 1978) began advocating for his release. She was among protesters from the Atajurt organisation outside the Chinese Consulate in the southern city of Almaty. She had visited the consulate many times trying to get information about her husband.

On 13 November 2025, she and 18 other protesters held a demonstration near the village of Kalzhat in Uyghur District of Almaty Region, on the eastern side of the Shonzhi-Kalzhat highway.

"It's been four months since Alimnur was captured by these Chinese," the subsequent indictment quotes Sherizat as telling fellow-protesters. "Since then, these Chinese have not given us any concrete answers. That's why I will not stop my opposition to the Chinese until Alimnur is released. Our opposition is our opposition, because Alimnur is a citizen of Kazakhstan."

Other protesters also spoke out about Turganbay's case and also raised wider concerns about the Chinese regime's treatment of the ethnic Kazakh minority. One protester complained that "the Chinese have imprisoned so many of our innocent brothers in camps, so many people have died, so many people are already suffering in prison, and those who have come out of the camps themselves have lost their health and are now suffering".

Several of the protesters then burnt three Chinese flags and one portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping. It appears that Sherizat did not actively take part in holding or lighting the flags or portrait.

Arrests, fines, short-term detentions

Police arrived in several cars at the site of the demonstration on 13 November 2025. The duty officer at Uyghur District Police refused to answer any questions on 15 January 2026 about the police action at the demonstration. He told Forum 18 the District Police chief Erlik Urkimbayev was out of the office and no one else could discuss the police action.

On the day of the demonstration, supporters of the demonstration posted videos online. That same day, police "discovered" the video on Atajurt's social media sites and sent it for investigation.

On the evening of 13 November, a local police officer drew up a record of an offence against Sherizat (seen by Forum 18) for "minor hooliganism" (Administrative Code Article 434, Part 1). She was fined 78,640 Tenge (about 2 weeks' average wage).

"All the female participants received administrative fines, while most male participants were detained from 7 to 15 days," the family told Forum 18.

Sherizat insists the protest was peaceful. "We could not remain silent. Therefore, we were forced to make a direct appeal to the Chinese authorities."

Indictment follows Chinese pressure

On 14 November 2025, the Chinese authorities wrote to Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry expressing "deep concern" over the demonstration, according to the indictment. "Taking into account the political mutual trust between the two countries, the High Representative asks the Government to pay close attention to it and take appropriate measures based on the results of a thorough investigation. The High Representative trusts the results of the investigation."

The same day, despite the administrative prosecutions, Uyghur District Police began a criminal case against the 19 protesters, including Guldaria Sherizat.

The case was launched under Criminal Code Article 174, Part 2. This punishes "Incitement of social, national, clan, racial, or religious discord, insult to the national honour and dignity or religious feelings of citizens, as well as propaganda of exclusivity, superiority or inferiority of citizens on grounds of their religion, class, national, generic or racial identity, committed publicly or with the use of mass media or information and communication networks, as well as by production or distribution of literature or other information media, promoting social, national, clan, racial, or religious discord" when conducted by a group.

Punishments are a jail term of five to ten years, with the possibility of a post-prison ban on certain activities or roles.

Investigators subsequently searched the homes of at least 6 of the protesters, including Sherizat. They also interrogated all 19 protesters.

On 21 November 2025, a court ordered that the 13 male protesters be placed in pre-trial detention. The 6 female protesters – including Sherizat - were placed under house arrest in the following days, according to the subsequent indictment. The 6 women were required to wear electronic tags to monitor their location.

On 3 December 2025, investigators used facial recognition technology on the videos of the demonstration to confirm the identities of the 19 protesters.

On 19 December 2025, Captain M. Orazgaziyev of Uyghur District Police completed the indictment against the 19 protesters. It claimed that all 19 were guilty of "inciting national discord against the Chinese people and insulting the national honour and dignity of citizens, in a premeditated conspiracy with a group of people, using the mass media".

The indictment (seen by Forum 18) was endorsed by Gabit Turmanov, the Prosecutor of Uyghur District.

Neither Captain Orazgaziyev nor officials at Uyghur District Prosecutor's Office answered the phones each time Forum 18 called between 15 and 20 January 2026.

23 January trial

Prosecutors handed the criminal case against Guldaria Sherizat and 18 others who took part in the November 2025 demonstration to Enbekshikazakh District Court No. 2, in Shelek in Almaty Region. Judge Erzhan Baibolov is due to begin hearing their case on 23 January 2026 at 3 pm, according to court records.

However, the case will be heard not in Shelek but in the premises of Taldykorgan City Court in Zhetisu Region. This is more than 300 kms and a four-hour road journey from Sherizat's home in Uzynagash.

"Judge Baibolov decided that the trial should take place in Taldykorgan," the Judge's secretary Zhasulan Aitbai told Forum 18 on 20 January. He refused to say why. "The Judge and all the team will travel up there on Friday for the hearing. It will probably take about four hours to get there."

"We don't know why they've transferred the case to a court in a different Region," Almaty-based lawyer Shinkuat Baizhanov, who is representing all 19 defendants, told Forum 18 on 19 January. "They decided. They do what they like."

Of the 19 defendants, 13 are due to be brought to court from pre-trial detention. The six women – including Sherizat – are under house arrest.

All 19 defendants are facing charges under Criminal Code Article 174, Part 2. This punishes "Incitement of social, national, clan, racial, or religious discord, insult to the national honour and dignity or religious feelings of citizens, as well as propaganda of exclusivity, superiority or inferiority of citizens on grounds of their religion, class, national, generic or racial identity, committed publicly or with the use of mass media or information and communication networks, as well as by production or distribution of literature or other information media, promoting social, national, clan, racial, or religious discord" when conducted by a group.

Punishments are a jail term of five to ten years, with the possibility of a post-prison ban on certain activities or roles.

"I consider the case illegal," the lawyer Baizhanov told Forum 18. "Participants were punished first under the Administrative Code, and then they brought a case under the Criminal Code. Under the Constitution, individuals cannot be punished twice for the same thing."

Sherizat's family say the case is a freedom of religion case, as she advocated for her husband who had defended his nephew who had been jailed for exercising freedom of religion or belief in Xinjiang. "The cases of the other 18 people are also related to freedom of religion or belief," the family insists. (END)

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Kazakhstan

For background information, see Forum 18's Kazakhstan freedom of religion or belief survey

Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments

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