The ITUC is calling for the release of Erlan Baltabay, a leader of the Independent Oil and Energy Workers’ Union in Kazakhstan, who has been returned to prison to serve a new 5-month term. Baltabay was released from prison in August, following a special decree by Kazakhstan’s President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, that he be released on humanitarian grounds.

“Erlan Baltabay’s imprisonment in the first place was completely unjustified. The entire criminal process against him was a travesty of justice, and we welcomed his release under the President’s decree. We urge the authorities to release Baltabay, in the spirit of the Decree of the President. We also call for the withdrawal of the unjustified and politically motivated sentence that put him in prison in the first place,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

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