NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakh authorities have arrested another former deputy chief of the Committee of National Security (KNB) over deadly unrest that shook the Central Asian nation last month.
The KNB said late on February 23 that Marat Osipov had been placed in pretrial detention on charges of abuse of office. The KNB gave no details except to add that the arrest was linked to the violence in early January.
Kazakh authorities said right after the riots last month that the chief of the KNB, Karim Masimov, known as a close ally of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, was arrested along with two other KNB deputy chiefs -- Daulet Erghozhin and Anuar Sadyqulov -- on charges of high treason.
Masimov's first deputy, Samat Abish, who is a nephew of Nazarbaev, was sacked from his post last month.
Last week, former Defense Minister Murat Bektanov was detained and charged with inaction during the January unrest.
Protests in the southwestern town of Zhanaozen last month over a sudden fuel price hike spread across Kazakhstan and led to violent clashes in Almaty and elsewhere.
The protesters’ economic discontent was quickly followed by broader popular calls against corruption, political stagnation, and widespread injustice.
Much of their anger appeared directed at Nazarbaev, who ruled Kazakhstan from 1989 until March 2019, when he handed power to Toqaev. However, Nazarbaev was widely believed to remain in control behind the scenes.
The protests were violently dispersed by police and military personnel, including troops from the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization that Toqaev invited, claiming that "20,000 extremists who were trained in terrorist camps abroad" had attacked Almaty.
The authorities have provided no evidence proving Toqaev’s claim about foreign terrorists.
Kazakh officials said 227 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, were killed during the unrest across the country.
Human rights groups insist the number may be much higher as scores of people remain missing, presenting proof that many peaceful demonstrators and persons who had nothing to do with the protests were killed by police and military personnel following Toqaev's "shoot to kill without warning" order.
