ALMATY (Kazakhstan), April 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A court in Kazakhstan on Friday sentenced a former top police officer in Kazakhstan to ten years in prison for abuse of power and torture during last year’s riots.
Protests over fuel prices erupted in January 2022 in the energy-rich former Soviet republic.
They were brutally crushed and 238 people died, according to the official toll.
Serik Kudebayev was the head of the police department in the Almaty region, which was badly affected by the unrest.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement that Kudebayev had been convicted of abuse of power and torture during the riots.
It said that with Kudebayev’s “tacit consent” 23 people had been tortured on January 7-16, 2022.
The former police chief has maintained his innocence.
Kudebayev was sentenced to prison after he attempted to flee, flying to Turkiye via neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. He was detained and brought back to Kazakhstan.
On Monday, Karim Masimov, the head of Kazakhstan’s security service at the time of the unrest, was found guilty of “high treason” and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Authorities have sought to present Masimov, the head of the National Security Committee during the riots, as the mastermind of a plot to overthrow President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on the back of the protests. — NNN-AGENCIES
