Judge Nurlan Bayahmetov of Astana City’s Almaty District Court extended the custody of Pastor Kashkumbaev another month —until October 17.
The basis for extending custody was the investigator’s warrant, supported by the prosecutor, stating that this was essential given that the results of the in-patient psychiatric examination are not known. The results of the examination might be expected around the end of September (according to the prosecution).
His lawyer asked the court to change the measure of restraint to house arrest or personal recognizance that he will not leave, but the judge dismissed this request.
From the conduct and words of the decision, it is increasingly clear that Judge Bayakmetov is on the side of the prosecution.
In his decision, he stated that the arguments put forth by the defense were not of sufficient weight to enable the court to deny the motion for an extension of custody. This is utter rubbish! After all, the motion stems from the charges, which means the onus is on them to provide convincing evidence.
“We are anticipating the results of the examination. Just wait, one of these days we’ll have them.", sputtered the prosecutor in court. He didn’t even provide an exact date. His replies in court were hesitant, the judge had to “pull” the words out of him.
But the defense attorney spoke for 30-40 minutes! He cited violations made during the investigation and by the prosecution of International Covenants, and of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, referring to Articles. Meanwhile, the judge was flipping through something, and reading.
The consequences of "punitive psychiatry":
Bahytzhan Kashkumbaev spent several weeks in the Republican Center of Psychiatry in Almaty, where he was subjected to a forced psychiatric examination. During this process he was cut off from contact with the outside world, neither his lawyer, nor his family were allowed access to him, and he was not allowed to make or receive phone calls.
On September 7, he was taken back to the detention center.
In a conversation with his lawyer in the isolation unit, Pastor said that there were 6 or 7 (patients) in his room at the psychiatric ward and they were kept in the basement where there were no windows. The people who were with him in the psychiatric ward wondered why he was summoned so often (19 times over the course of his confinement ), while they were summoned only 2 or 3 times each.
For the 5 days before the board hearing he was subjected against his will to take an intramuscular injection of a certain drug on a daily basis and they did the first injection, which made him ill. He vomited, his heart started beating irregularly, and he lost consciousness. If no one else had been there on the ward, then there would have been no saving him. They elected not to give him the remaining injections.
Two thoughts come to my mind from this: either they deliberately wanted to “prepare” him for the review board so that pastor would appear abnormal, or their intention was to kill him, as the doctors knew about his prior heart attack and that he must not use these drugs.