NUR-SULTAN, January 18. /TASS/. Kazakhstan’s law enforcement has arrested 695 individuals during the investigation of criminal cases on mass disturbances, Senior Aide to Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor General Azamat Sargazin said at a briefing on Tuesday.
"Some 695 pre-trial investigations were launched over grave and particularly grave offences, including 44 on terror attacks, 15 on murders, 6 cases - on the facts of propaganda and calls to seize power. As suspects, 780 individuals were detained, the court sanctioned the arrest of 695 of them," he said.
On January 15, chief of the criminal prosecution service of Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor General’s office Serik Shalabayev reported that the law enforcement had arrested 446 individuals during the investigation of criminal cases on mass disturbances, 546 criminal cases had been opened.
Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots with government buildings getting ransacked in several cities, primarily in Almaty, a few days later. Subsequently, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization requesting assistance from the Russia-led bloc. As a result, peacekeepers were deployed to Kazakhstan. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, was restored to all of the country’s regions. According to the Prosecutor General’s office, over 4,500 people were injured in the disturbances, 225 bodies of those killed were taken to morgues.