Akhmet, Zhanara
Who, Why and How exiled: Zhanara Akhmet is a journalist who worked for an opposition newspaper, the Tribune, in Kazakhstan as well as documented human rights violations by the Kazakh authorities on a blog (Index on Censorship, 2017). In March 2017, Akhmet fled Kazakhstan with her 9-year-old son, saying she feared for her safety if she remained in the Central Asia former Soviet republic (Radio Free Europe, 2017).
Stage 1 details (accusations/ charges/ Interpol notice/ extradition requests): Akhmet decided to flee to Ukraine when she learned from sources that she could face charges of "organizing an illegal group" that uses the Internet to advocate self-immolation (Radio Free Europe, 2017) Akhmet previously faced a series of court hearings in Almaty for alleged legal violations, including jaywalking, that she considered to be harassment by Kazakh authorities (Radio Free Europe, 2017).
Stage 2 details (arrest/ detention/ extradition): Zhanar Akhmet was detained in Kyiv on October 21, 2017 on an Interpol arrest warrant issued by Kazakh authorities that charges her with fraud Article 177 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which became the reason for her detention ( Radio Free Europe, 2017; Ferghana news, 2017). She was held in a temporary detention facility in the city of Vyshhorod, Kyiv region (Mapping Media Freedom, 2017). According to the lawyer, the court arrested his client for 18 days ( Ferghana news, 2017).
Other actions during Stages 1–3 (dispossession/ overseas assets frozen/ intimidation/ action against associates/ …): Prior her arrest in Ukraine, Ahmet was on probation control after her early release from prison in Kazakhstan, where she served her sentence charged by the Kazakh authorities of fraud in real estate transactions time ( Ferghana news, 2017).
Legal status (refugee/ asylum seeker/ resident): Zhanara Akhmet and her 9-year-old son have lived in Kyiv for less than a year and have applied for political asylum (Hromadske.ua., 2017). On 29 September 2018 the the Supreme Court of Ukraine ordered the State Migration Service to grant Ahmet refugee status.(24Kanal, 2018)
Current status: She has been released from detention and her Interpol Red notice was removed (Grigoryeva and Djalilov, 2018)
Press sources: Radio Free Europe. 2017. 'Ukraine Detains Kazakh Blogger At Kazakhstan's Request'.October 23, 2017.[Online]. Available at: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-detains-kazakh-blogger-at-kazakhstans-request/28810685.html [Accessed :23 May, 201 Hromadske.ua., 2017. 'Kazakh Journalist and Political Asylum Seeker Arrested in Kyiv'. October 23, 2017.[Online]. Available at:https://en.hromadske.ua/posts/kazakh-journalist-and-political-asylum-seeker-arrested-in-kyiv?utm_source=Communications&utm_campaign=ae05de7af1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c67d07604c-ae05de7af1-248049821&mc_cid=ae05de7af1&mc_eid=b617d18727 [Accessed :23 May, 201 Mapping Media Freedom. 2017. 'Ukraine/Україна: Kazakh journalist detained following Interpol warrant'. October 21, 2017. [Online]. Available at: https://mappingmediafreedom.org/#/4744 [Accessed :23 May, 2018] Ferghana news, 2017. 'Arrested in Ukraine Kazakh journalist on hunger strike'. October 25, 2017.[Online].Available at: http://enews.fergananews.com/news.php?id=3559&mode=snews Grigoryeva, T. and Djalilov, I. 2018. 'For Eurasia’s activists, no place is a safe haven'. .[Online].Available at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/tamara-grigoryeva-ismail-djalilov/no-place-is-a-safe-haven [Accessed :23 May, 2018]