Blogger and journalist Aigul Utepova was forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital in Nursultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, on 23 November. She has been under house arrest since 17 September charged with “participating in an extremist organization” for her YouTube videos and posts on social media critical of the government. On 19 November a court approved the investigator’s request to place her in a closed psychiatric institution “for observation”. She is a prisoner of conscience, targeted solely for exercising her right to freedom of expression and should be immediately and unconditionally released.
