Saniya Toiken is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Kazakh Service.
Supporters of Kazakh opposition activist Marat Zhylanbaev came to the court building in Astana on November 17 as he was facing a hearing behind closed doors. Authorities have accused Zhylanbaev of cooperation with an opposition movement labeled in the country as extremist.
President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has called torture incidents “barbaric medieval happenings” that “contradict the principles of any progressive society.” But evidence suggests that the practice is systemic.
Protests by unemployed residents of Mangystau have spotlighted systemic problems in a province that accounts for around a quarter of Kazakhstan’s oil production. RFE/RL spent several days in the village of Zhetybai to understand the demands of an increasingly restive population.
Kazakhstan faced a potential crisis once again, as police detained dozens of unemployed oil workers from the restive town of Zhanaozen who had taken their protests to the capital. Despite talk of a newly revamped parliament, Kazakhstan's Mazhilis appears to be just as impotent as ever.
A court in Kazakhstan has rejected an appeal filed by imprisoned activist Erzhan Elshibaev against an additional seven years incarceration handed to him in September for "violating the penitentiary’s internal regulations and for calls to disobey prison guards."
Several activists of a Kazakh opposition movement have been arrested and police were stationed outside the door of another ahead of a snap presidential election scheduled for November 20.
A hot, dry spell and wind helped fuel devastating fires that some think were started deliberately.
The Uzbek government has accused protesters in the Karakalpakstan region of attacking security forces and "damaging infrastructure." But demonstrators say they didn't have any weapons and were ordered by local elders "to be careful not to damage anything."
Several protesters have gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, demanding the release of relatives they say are being illegally held in China's northwestern Xinjiang Province, as Foreign Minister Wang Yi visits the Central Asian country.
Kazakhstan's Committee of National Security (KNB) says it has launched a probe against a Kazakh citizen for allegedly illegally taking part in military operations in Ukraine.
Kazakh civil right activist Asqar Qaiyrbek has been released from prison after a court replaced the remainder of his prison term with a parole-like penalty amid an outcry by human rights groups over political prisoners in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.
Oil workers from Kazakhstan's restive southwestern town of Zhanaozen have descended upon the capital, Nur-Sultan, to demand salary increases and improved work conditions.
A Kazakh court has replaced another activist's prison sentence with a parole-like penalty amid an outcry by human rights groups over political prisoners in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.
Nearly two weeks after the deadly unrest in Kazakhstan, dozens of families are still looking for their loved ones who vanished during the massive protests that were violently put down by security forces.
Two more Kazakh activists have been sentenced to "restricted freedom," a parole-like sentence, for having links to the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement amid an ongoing crackdown on supporters of the opposition group and the associated Koshe (Street) party.
A Kazakh court has sentenced an activist to two years of "freedom limitation," a parole-like sentence, for having ties to the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement amid an ongoing crackdown on supporters of the opposition group and the associated Koshe (Street) party.
As rumors of new antigovernment protests circulate in Kazakhstan, authorities are taking measures to ensure the activists can't attend the rallies.
Activists in Kazakhstan are being drafted into the army after protesting ahead of the country's carefully managed June 9 presidential election.
A compulsory measles-vaccination campaign has been suspended in Kazakhstan after some 100 teenagers reportedly fell ill after being inoculated. Despite protests by parents, however, health authorities are determined to resume the campaign within days.
On December 16, 2011, deadly clashes in the western Kazakh city of Zhanaozen left at least 16 people dead and 100 more injured. The riots between police and angry residents were the bloody culmination of a prolonged strike by local oil workers, and raised international concerns about the state of labor rights in Kazakshtan's remote energy-rich regions. As the anniversary approaches, the city is hauntingly quiet. But many residents say they remain distressed by the brutal clashes and the arrests and trials that followed.
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