EU Statement on the case of Sergei Duvanov (Vienna)

The EU is very concerned that the Supreme Court in Kazakhstan has rejected the appeal filed by Mr Sergei Duvanov, and particularly that the Supreme Court has reached this decision without responding in substance to the points raised by Mr Duvanov's lawyers.

We have previously expressed our concerns about the investigations of the Duvanov case and the court proceedings. These concerns were reinforced by the conclusions of the review carried out by OSCE experts. Therefore, we regret that our hopes for a free and fair appeals hearing in the Supreme Court have not been borne out.

The EU understands that it may be possible for Mr Duvanov to be released conditionally before the end of his sentence. We would like to underline the importance we attach to a positive outcome in this case.

The Acceding Countries Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia and the Associated Countries Bulgaria and Romania align themselves with this statement.

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