Officials in Kazakhstan have taken into custody a former minister of interior on Tuesday, for his involvement in the violent police response to protests in the country in 2022.
The top lawyer’s office said Erlan Turgumbayev was arrested on Monday for misusing his power and causing serious harm while harshly stopping riots. The government of Kazakhstan is responsible for overseeing the country’s police.
Unrest began in Zhanaozen city on January. On February 2, 2022, people in Kazakhstan protested because the price of gas for their cars went up a lot.
The protests turned into complaints about corruption and unfairness in the economy under the former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev. Critics say he has been making money from the country’s energy wealth since he became leader in 1991.
Nazarbayez quit being the president in 2019 but still had a lot of control during the protests as the leader of Kazakhstan’s security council.
In Almaty, the biggest city in the country, protests became violent and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev gave orders to shoot people as demonstrators attacked government buildings. Officials said that 238 people died during the violent situation.
Tokayev made a lot of changes, like only allowing the president to have one 7-year term. He also took Nazarbayev out of his jobs as head of the security council and the capital city, which had been changed to Nur-Sultan in Nazarbayev’s honor, changed back to its old name of Astana.
Turgumbayev was fired from his job one month after the chaos.