Extremist gets 20 years

By Saule Tasbulatova

November 19, a court in Atyrau sentenced Orynbassar Munatov, 26, a follower of an extremist religious movement, to 20 years of imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony.

The man was found guilty of creating and leading a terrorist group, financing a terrorist group, and organization of terrorist acts. The trial was held behind closed doors.

Informal sources say, Munatov was extradited from Pakistan in June.

The Kazakh Prosecutor-General's Office said in 2011 that a man named Orynbasar Munatov was one of the founders of Jund al-Khilafah (Soldiers of the Caliphate), a "brigade" of Islamist fighters based on the Afghan-Pakistani border that claimed responsibility for two explosions in the center of Atyrau that year.