ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Noted opposition figure Zhanbolat Mamai has been remanded in custody by a court in Kazakhstan on charges of insulting law enforcement officers and distributing "false information," accusations he and his supporters call politically motivated.
The Almaty City Court on March 28 rejected an appeal by Mamai against his pretrial detention. About a dozen of his supporters rallied in front of the court building during the hearing.
Mamai, the leader of the unregistered Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, was sentenced on February 25 for organizing an unsanctioned public event to commemorate victims of the January anti-government protests around Kazakhstan that claimed the lives of at least 230 people.
Mamai was expected to be released on March 12 after serving a 15-day jail term. However, he was not released and faced the additional charges of insulting law enforcement officers and distributing "false information."
On March 14 a court in Almaty sent Mamai to pretrial detention for at least two months.
Mamai has been known for his harsh criticism of the nation's authoritarian government.
He has been trying to register the Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, but claims he is being prevented from doing so by the government, which he says only permits parties loyal to the country's political power to be legally registered.
Kazakhstan has been run by authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his successor, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, since gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Over the past three decades, several opposition figures have been killed and many jailed or forced to flee the Central Asian country.
