Kazakhstan jails 2022 riot leaders, alleging attempted coup

Kazakhstan on Monday sentenced 45 people to prison terms of up to 20 years for their role in violent 2022 protests that left 238 people dead.

The Central Asian country was rocked by rare protests in January 2022 over rising fuel prices, with the unrest quickly escalating into riots.

Kazakhstan's close ally Russia deployed troops to the country to quell the uprising, which threatened to bring down President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

In a major trial, a court in the country's main city of Almaty, epicentre of the violence, sentenced 45 people to between 18 months and 20 years in prison for organising and participating in mass unrest, state media reported.

They included Arman Dzhumageldiev, a powerful figure in the Kazakh crime world known as "Wild Arman", who was sentenced to 20 years in jail for organising riots and kidnapping, the court said in a statement.

The court alleged he worked closely with a former member of Kazakhstan's secret services and ex-councillor in Almaty. The two accused accomplices were sentenced to more than 15 years in the same case.

Together, the three were "the key organisers of mass riots, with the goal of a violent seizure of power," the court said in a statement.

Amid the unrest, Tokayev had issued a "shoot to kill" order in a bid to end the unprecedented protests.

After order was restored, he moved to cement his grip on power -- dismissing aides who were seen as close to his predecessor and one-time mentor Nursultan Nazarbayev, and stripping the former leader of many privileges.

The head of the Kazakh secret services at the time of the unrest, Karim Massimov, was dismissed and last year jailed for 18 years on treason charges and staging an attempted armed coup.