Kazakhstan detains former security chief for treason

The former head of Kazakhstan’s domestic intelligence agency has been detained on suspicion of high treason, the agency said Saturday, after he was fired amid violent protests.

The National Security Committee, or KNB, said in a statement that its former chief Karim Masimov had been detained on Thursday after it launched an investigation into charges of high treason.

For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

“On January 6 of this year the National Security Committee launched a pre-trial investigation into high treason,” the statement said.

“On the same day, on suspicion of committing this crime, former chairman of the KNB K.K. Masimov was detained and placed in a temporary detention centre, along with others.”

Masimov, a close ally of Kazakhstan’s founding president Nursultan Nazarbayev, was sacked from his post as head of the KNB this week after protesters in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty stormed government buildings.

Meanwhile, non-emergency employees working for the United States Consulate General in Kazakhstan were authorized Friday to leave the country, the State Department said, as Kazakhstan’s president rejected calls for talks with protesters after days of unprecedented unrest.

Read more:

Kazakhstan’s president orders forces to open fire without warning amid unrest

Moscow-led alliance sends first troops to Kazakhstan: Statement

Kazakhstan’s interior ministry says 26 ‘armed criminals’ killed in unrest