Hundreds detained in Kazakhstan over protests

Kazakhstan on Thursday said nearly 1,000 people have been handed jail terms or other penalties for taking part in protests over the presidential election that was won by veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev’s hand-picked successor.

The Kazakh prosecutor-general's office said 957 were found guilty of offences, 670 of whom were jailed while others were fined or given warnings.

The biggest wave of public protests in years has become the first challenge for President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as he takes over the oil-rich nation of 18 million. Fears of violent clashes brought life to a standstill in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city, on Wednesday, when the latest protest took place.

The protesters were found guilty of taking part in in illegal demonstrations and disobeying police, the statement said.

Saparbek Nurpeisov, an official at the prosecutor-general's office was quoted as saying that protesters "succumbed to provocations, began demonstrations and started attacking law enforcement officers."

On Sunday, police arrested some 500 protesters in Almaty and the capital Nur-Sultan as demonstrators urged a boycott of what they said was a fixed election.

On Monday, hundreds more were arrested at protests as Tokayev was inaugurated in polls that foreign monitors criticised for "voting irregularities."

The protesters had called for the cancellation of election results.