Former Kazakh extremists warn of their mistakes after completing prison sentences

ALMATY -- Kazakh prisoners who did time for joining extremist organisations and recruiting their compatriots are sharing their stories, as they gradually leave the country's prisons.

After some rocky years when the "Islamic State" (IS) seemed ascendant, the situation is improving in Kazakhstan.

Between January and December 2021, authorities recorded 192 criminal cases related to terrorism and extremism, a 7.7% drop from the 208 cases of 2020.

The number of such offences fell for the fifth consecutive year, Energyprom.kz reported in February.

In addition, according to the 2022 Global Terrorism Index, last year Kazakhstan had a score of zero, meaning that it has not registered a terrorist act in five years.

Two ex-convicts spoke to Caravanserai about the lives they are building after the colossal mistakes they made.

Maria

Maria, who lived in Nur-Sultan, became increasingly radical starting in 2012. Her views drove a stake into her marriage, and in 2013 she and her husband divorced.

A year later, at the urging of IS acquaintances, Maria went to Turkey.

Maria's ex-husband kept their son, while Maria travelled to Turkey with their younger child, a four-year-old girl.

After Maria and her daughter arrived in Turkey, IS members took them to Syria by bus.

"They gave us a house ... But two months after we got there, air raids started and we had to live out of our backpacks so we'd be able to leave the house quickly," said Maria, who only gave her first name.

While in Syria, Maria married an IS member and bore two sons. Of the five years she lived there, she was married for three and a half. Her husband was killed in an anti-IS air strike.

"He was on a base with 30 IS commanders. They were all killed at once," Maria said.

With food scarce and her future uncertain, Maria eventually realised that she had to return to Kazakhstan any way she could.

"I couldn't say openly that I wanted to go home -- you could be executed ... and I had children to take care of. I spent a year and a half looking for different ways to flee the camp."

Maria in the end escaped to a Kurdish camp, and from there she returned to Nur-Sultan in May 2019 under the auspices of Operation Jusan 3, part of a series of flights from 2019 to 2021 in which Kazakhstan repatriated more than 700 citizens from Syria and Iraq.

"There are no words to describe what my three children and I saw. I am infinitely grateful that we were repatriated," Maria said.

Back in Kazakhstan, a court convicted Maria of recruiting for IS for earlier attempting to have her ex-sister-in-law come to Syria with Maria's son. Police stopped that woman's travel party at a train station in Kazakhstan.

If Maria had known Kazakhstan's National Security Committee (KNB) would view that request as recruitment, "I wouldn't have asked them to come, no matter how much I missed my son", she said.

Maria underwent rehabilitation in prison and, after serving three years, was released early for good behaviour. During her imprisonment, her children bounced from a children's home to Maria's ex-sister-in-law to a friend of Maria's.

After Maria's release, the Chance social and legal aid organisation helped her resettle. It is covering her apartment rent for one year; has purchased bedding, food and children's clothes; and has enrolled her children in school.

Ruslan

Ruslan Ginatullin of Pavlodar began praying regularly starting in 1998, when he was still in high school.

Eventually, his religious beliefs became extremist as he felt appalled by "how people treat each other ... stratification in society and poverty", he said.

Seeking answers, he fell in with Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), an international fundamentalist organisation that seeks to install an Islamic "caliphate" globally. It is illegal in all five Central Asian countries.

"In 2002, I met an agitator from [HT]," Ginatullin said.

The recruiter's message was that "we needed to change the country's leadership because the government was preventing the spread of Islam and development of a happy society", he said.

Ginatullin spent seven years proselytising for HT -- from 2002 to 2009 -- and was convicted three times. He spent a total of nine years in prison: 2004-2006, 2009-2011 and 2016-2021.

The last conviction came after most HT leaders in Kazakhstan were imprisoned and he was operating on his own.

He was imprisoned for "handing out pamphlets", "holding classes and explaining ideology in people's apartments", and "preaching on VKontakte and Facebook", he added.

Ginatullin has been undergoing rehabilitation for more than two years and now works as a sales representative in Pavlodar.

"You have to avoid naïveté," he said. "If you want to change the world, start with yourself, not other people."

De-radicalisation, preventive measures

Convicts are easier to work with than are extremists who have not gone to prison, said Asylbek Izbairov of Almaty, a de-radicalisation specialist.

Those who went to prison already have admitted guilt, so they are ready to co-operate with de-radicalisation workers, he said, although admittedly some convicts may just want to curry favour with authorities.

"We need to give credit to the state and the Kazakh [KNB], which arrested and then convicted the leaders of pseudo-Salafist groups," said Izbairov.

The crackdown gave de-programming teams time to create "mechanisms and methodologies", he said.

Those de-radicalisation specialists took risks in the early 2010s, he added. "They moved with their families to Aktau and Aktobe, risking their lives, visited jamagats [Islamic groups] and worked with individuals who were inclined to radicalism."

"Right now we have specially trained people working with [convicted extremists] in prisons, we have plenty of theologians, and we have a methodology too," said Yerlan Dosmagambetov of Almaty, another de-radicalisation specialist.

"Also, IS no longer has the strength it used to have -- there's a small remnant in Afghanistan and Syria, but [its foes] wipe it out again and again," he said.