ASTANA -- Kazakhstan's Constitutional Court has annulled the law on the first president and leader of the nation (elbasy), depriving former authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev of lifetime benefits and privileges.
The court said on January 11 that the move was made at the request of lawmakers and in accordance with a national June 2022 referendum that removed Nazarbaev's name from the constitution and approved the cancellation of his status as "elbasy."
The law in question was adopted in 2000 and provided Nazarbaev and his family members among other benefits with lifetime immunity from any prosecution, except if related to high treason.
President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has taken a series of moves since January 2022 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 Central Asian country's powerful Security Council. He also enjoyed substantial powers by holding the title of elbasy.
Even after Nazarbaev's resignation, many Kazakhs remained bitter over the oppression felt during his reign.
Those feelings came to a head in January last year when unprecedented anti-government protests were sparked by a fuel price hike.
The demonstrations unexpectedly exploded into deadly nationwide unrest over perceived corruption under the Nazarbaev regime and the cronyism that allowed his family and close friends to enrich themselves while ordinary citizens failed to share in the oil-rich country's wealth.
Toqaev subsequently 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 have been arrested on corruption charges.
Kazakh critics say Toqaev's initiatives were mainly 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.