In August 2021, police opened two criminal cases against Nikolai Katchiyev, a villager who campaigned against a gold mining project owned by Altynalmas in northern Kazakhstan. He is accused of disseminating deliberately false information and “inciting social hatred.” He risks a term of up to ten years in prison without hope of a non-custodial sentence. Prosecutors strain to link him to a banned opposition movement.

Last August, Katchiyev, a single father of two children, sent a letter to Tokayev, demanding that Bestobe’s environmental problems finally be addressed. But at the beginning of September, police raided his house, breaking through his 13-year-old son’s bedroom window and confiscating Katchiyev’s laptop. Katchiyev says his brother’s home was also raided.

On 27th of June the court in Stepnogorsk found Nikolai Katchiyev guilty of spreading false information and handed non-custodial sentences. At the last minute prosecutors reduced the charge from the more serious accusation of inciting social hatred. The presiding judge concluded that Nikolai's conviction fell immediately under an amnesty. This decision left Nikolai Katchiyev free and able to continue his activism, however authorities in Bestobe are trying to prevent this.