Watchdog

The former head of the Shymkent city finance department has been sentenced to three years in prison after a court found him guilty of abuse of office in rare conviction for corruption in Kazakhstan.

Kenzhebek Zhanbosynov was arrested immediately after the Karatau District Court handed down its ruling on May 5. He was also banned for life from holding public office.

The court said that Zhanbosynov, 49, as the head of the city finance department and a member of the board of directors of the Shymkent Social and Entrepreneurial Corporation, oversaw the sale of apartments at below-market rates, "causing significant damage" to the state.

Zhanbosynov's lawyers rejected the verdict and said that they would appeal it as the court failed to prove their client's actions caused serious material damage to the state or society.

Kazakhstan has been plagued for years by rampant corruption, placing 102nd out of 180 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index in 2021.

In January, protests that started over a fuel-price hike spread across Kazakhstan because of discontent over cronyism and corruption.

Much of the anger in the streets was directed at former President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who ruled the Central Asian state from 1989 to March 2019, when he handed power to Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.

Since the protests, Toqaev has swept out many seen as loyal to Nazarbaev, as well as those who were seen as failing to contain the deadly violence.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- The wife of jailed Kazakh opposition politician Zhanbolat Mamai has been fined after she was briefly detained and charged with violating the Central Asian nation's law on public gatherings.

A court in Almaty fined Inga Imanbai 91,800 tenges ($209) on May 4 after finding her guilty of the charge, which Imanbai told RFE/RL was politically motivated.

"I consider the court’s ruling as pressure being imposed on me, my husband, and the Democratic party ahead of our rally scheduled for May 7," Imanbai said.

Earlier in the day, Imanbai told RFE/RL that about a dozen police officers came to detain her when she was leaving a detention center in Almaty on May 4, where she had brought food to her husband.

"Police rejected my suggestion that I would come to the police station later with my lawyer. They forced me into their car and brought me to the Almaty district police department, where they told me that I was accused of breaking the law on public gatherings," Imanbai said, adding that the charge stemmed from a rally in front of a court in Almaty where she was demanding Mamai's release.

Mamai, the leader of the unregistered Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, was sentenced on February 25 for organizing an unsanctioned public event to commemorate the victims of January anti-government protests around Kazakhstan that claimed the lives of at least 230 people.

SEE ALSO:

Court Rejects Custody Appeal By Kazakh Opposition Figure Zhanbolat Mamai

Mamai was expected to be released on March 12 after serving a 15-day jail term. However, he was not released and instead faced 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 by the government, which he says only permits parties loyal to those holding 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 have been jailed or forced to flee the Central Asian country.