Kazakhstan sentences 19 for protest against repression in China’s Xinjiang region

By Daily Excelsior – BEIJING, Apr 16: A court in Kazakhstan convicted 19 activists after a protest against Beijing’s crackdown in China’s far-western Xinjiang region last year, in what experts and advocates said was the largest move yet by the Kazakh government to silence criticism at Beijing’s behest. The activists, all of whom were Kazakh nationals, protested near the border with China in November, burning Chinese flags and portraits of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and calling for the release of a Kazakh citizen detained in Xinjiang last year. Eleven activists were sentenced to five years in prison for “inciting discord,”…