Extreme Measures against Kazakh Human Rights Activists

If you are a human rights activist in Russia, you are likely risking your life, could have criminal investigations opened against you, get successfully sued for exposing abuses, or even get arrested attending a funeral of one of your fallen colleagues.  Well, it could be worse.  It looks like in Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Kazakhstan, they’ll throw some poor man in front of your car in order to charge you with vehicular homicide.  This story sounds extremely fishy, especially coming on the heels of Zhovtis efforts raising international awareness of Nazarbayev’s draconian new media laws and commenting on other human rights issues in the Central Asian state.  From RFE/RL:

Yevgeny Zhovtis, director of the nongovernmental organization Human Rights Bureau, said that he was driving a car that struck a man and killed him late on July 27.

Zhovtis said he was returning home from a fishing trip when two cars on the other side of the road suddenly switched on their high-beam lights and a person went in front of his car.

He said there was no chance for him to stop the car in time and the person was killed.

Zhovtis added that medical tests confirmed he was not intoxicated while he was driving. Zhovtis is known as one of the most prominent human rights activists in Kazakhstan.