Kazakhstan detains former defence minister over January unrest

Kazakhstan has detained former defence minister Murat Bektanov after prosecutors launched a probe against him for failing to fulfil his duties during violent unrest last month.

The country's prosecutor general's office announced his arrest on Monday.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has described the deadliest unrest in the oil-rich Central Asian's post-Soviet history as an attempted coup, and another senior security official, a former head of the national security committee, has been arrested on charges of treason and abuse of office.

Tokayev sacked Bektanov as minister last month, saying he had shown no initiative during the unrest.

Bektanov is reportedly in pretrial detention in Nur-Sultan, the capital of the post-Soviet Central Asian republic of around 19 million people.

Investigations continuing

The authorities say they are still investigating the January events; they have named no culprits aside from the former security boss and a few of his deputies.

Protests in the remote town of Zhanaozen in early January over a sudden fuel-price hike quickly spread across Kazakhstan and led to violent clashes in the country's largest city, Almaty, and elsewhere.

After announcing his resignation in March 2019, the former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbaev left Tokayev in his stead.

Nazarbaev, however, retained large political influence in the oil-rich country with almost limitless powers.

Much of the public anger during the unrest appeared to be directed to the former president Nazarbaev.

The crisis prompted Toqaev to seek help from troops from the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to quell the unrest.

Toqaev's moves since then appear aimed at ousting Nazarbaev's relatives and allies.

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