ASTANA -- Kazakhstan's prosecutor-general says the former chief of police of the southern region of Almaty, General Serik Kudebaev, who fled the country to evade trial for abuse of office in a case related to the deadly mass unrest that rocked the country in January 2022, has been apprehended.
Berik Asylov told journalists on April 27 that Kudebaev had been detained in Turkey and extradited to Kazakhstan recently. He did not elaborate.
Almaty regional police said earlier that Kudebaev, who was ordered not to leave Almaty, might have illegally crossed the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border in late March and left Kyrgyzstan from the airport in Bishkek for Turkey.
Kudebaev is one of dozens of former law enforcement officials and individuals close to former President Nursultan Nazarbaev to face various charges following January 2022 anti-government protests that were violently dispersed, leaving at least 238 people dead.
Earlier this week, a court in Astana handed former National Security Committee chief Karim Masimov, who was known as a close Nazarbaev ally, an 18-year prison term on charges of high treason, attempting to seize power by force, and abuse of office and power.
Masimov's former deputies, Anuar Sadyqulov, Daulet Erghozhin, and Marat Osipov, were sentenced to 16, 15, and three years in prison respectively at the same trial.
President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has taken a series of actions since the unrest to push Nazarbaev, who ruled the tightly controlled former Soviet republic with an iron fist for almost three decades, further into the background following his resignation in 2019.
Though he officially stepped down as president, Nazarbaev retained sweeping powers as the head of the country's powerful Security Council. He also enjoyed substantial powers by holding the title of "elbasy," or leader of the nation.
In the wake of the deadly unrest last year, Toqaev stripped Nazarbaev of his Security Council role, taking it over himself. Since then, several of Nazarbaev's relatives and allies have been pushed out of their positions or resigned. Some relatives faced criminal charges.
In mid-February, Toqaev signed a law that canceled Nazarbayev's elbasy status.
Kazakh critics say Toqaev's initiatives were cosmetic and did not change the nature of the autocratic system in a country that has been plagued for years by rampant corruption and nepotism.