Atyrau citizen arrested in Dubai

By Zulfia Bainekeeva

Ten days passed since the detention of 12 Kazakhstan nationals in Dubai. The first person who was arrested was Myrzabek Kautbaev, the citizen of Atyrau. He was arrested at the Dubai International Airport when he and his grandmother were passing through the passport control point.

The relatives of the detained still don’t know what was the reason for their arrests. We tried to contact their relatives, but they called Ak Zhaik newspaper themselves and told us their story.

 - We want to disprove what news agencies publish with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, - says over the phone Aigul Abougalieva, Kautbayev’s mother.  - They are not the students who went to study, but they are adult people with families and children. They’ve been working in Sharjah for a long time. Please come and see us.

… From the private house located on Amanshina Steet came out the woman dressed in a long dress and her head covered with a scarf. All other women in the house, except 76yo grandmother, were dressed similar. It was obvious that it was the family of believers. But they were least inclined to connect this factor to what happened to their son in the Emirates.

- Yes, we pray 5 times a day, we visit the mosque on Fridays. But could it be the reason for detention? Moreover, it is the Muslim country.

In 2011 Myrzabek left for Sharjah together with his wife and children. He was invited by his acquaintance from Oral who opened his own business “Investgroup.kz” a few years before. The relatives said that they didn’t know what was Myrzabek’s position and what he was actually doing in Sharjah. Aigul says that she never saw them delivering second-hand cars from the Emirates:

– As far as I know the firm was delivering spare parts for cars.

(Company website among spare parts delivery services also offers car delivery.  - Z. B.)

The family members  in Atyrau used to travel to the Emirates quite often to visit Myrzabek’s family. His mother Aigul said that she’s been to Dubai three times. And at the moment of detention Myrzabek was accompanying his grandmother (she’s been to Dubai 2 times) and he was going to personally accompany her to Atyrau because of her old age.

According to Grandma Asiya, on October 25, they checked in for the flight from Abu Dhabi to Atyrau, but at the passport control point Myrzabek was detained and he said that she should fly by herself since some figures in his document don't coincide, and he is not allowed to board the plane. Myrzabek told her that everything would be all right. 

However, 10 days passed and they don't know neither the reason for detention nor his whereabouts.

- A few days later local Special Ops Unit soldiers broke into the house where Kazakhstan citizens lived. They put children in one room and then tied men’s hands and legs and took them away. Altogether they arrested 6 employees of the firm. Who were the other 6 people, they din’t’ know. It is possible that they were the visiting guests of Asylbek Shoukranov, the firm director, who were staying with him. The detained persons are mainly from Oral. Except Myrzabek there were one or two persons from Atyrau, says Aigul. She talked to Myrzabek’s wife over the phone.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan sent an inquiry concerning the report from the relatives of the arrested Kazakhstanis. According to the MFA spokesman Nurzhan Aitmakhanov the relatives appealed to the Consulate General of United Arab Emirates in Kazakhstan. No answer to their inquiry has been received so far. The charges and the fate of the arrested Kazakhstan citizens remain unknown to their families and friends. 

– We have no idea what happened. The wives of detainees call us and they are also confused. Their husbands used to pay for rent and utilities and provide food, but now the families are left without any financial support. They don’t’ have money even for food.

I called all three phone numbers of the Kazakh Consulate in the Emirates, including an “emergency” one that the relatives of detainees gave me. Nobody answered the phones, though the phones were within the service zone. However, people don't know still what happened to their relatives in the civilized country that seemed to be on a friendly foot with Kazakhstan.