Satire Can be a Crime in Kazakhstan

Click to expand Image Downtown Astana, Kazakhstan, February 28, 2023. © 2023 Olivier Douliery/AP Photo Satirist and political commentator Azamat Omarov, who had been in pre-trial detention in Kazakhstan since mid-April on “inciting discord” charges, struck a plea bargain with the prosecution, under the terms of which he pled guilty, and on September 15, was released. While Omarov avoided what could have been a long and unjustified prison sentence, he did not walk out of the courtroom a free man.