Watchdog

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A court in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, has sentenced rights activist and journalist Aigerim Tleuzhanova to 15 days in jail over her participation in an unsanctioned mass gathering to commemorate victims of the deadly unrest in January.

Tleuzhanova was sentenced on March 2 after a court found her guilty of violating the law on public gatherings.

Tleuzhanova pleaded not guilty, saying that she was at the gathering in Almaty's central square on February 13 as a journalist.

Rights lawyer Erlan Qaliev said to RFE/RL that Tleuzhanova was covering the gathering for the Elmedia television channel.

Also on March 2, another activist, Marat Turymbetov, and a well-known businessman, Bolat Abilov, were fined 150,000 tenges ($312) each for organizing the February 13 event.

Kazakh authorities say 227 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, were killed across the country after a peaceful demonstration in the tightly controlled Central Asian state's western region of Manghystau on January 2 over a fuel-price hike led to widespread anti-government protests.

Human rights groups say the number of those killed was much higher, providing evidence that there were peaceful demonstrators and persons who had nothing to do with the protests among those killed by law enforcement and military personnel.

Authorities say some 800 people have been arrested over the unrest and an investigation is under way. There are reports that those in custody have been tortured in custody.

The Prosecutor-General's Office said on March 2 that 62 people arrested over the deadly unrests had been sentenced to prison.

The chief editor of the television channel Dozhd TV says he has left Russia after the independent online channel's website was blocked by government authorities.

Tikhon Dzyadko said in a statement on the Podyom Telegram channel on March 2 that he and several of his colleagues had left the country indefinitely amid a harsh crackdown by authorities on independent media outlets.

"After the illegal blockage of Dozhd's site, Dozhd's accounts in several social networks, as well as threats addressed to some of our employees, it became obvious that the personal safety of some of us is now under threat," Dzyadko said.

Dzyadko's announcement came a day after Dozhd's website was blocked in Russia by order of the Prosecutor-General's Office. It also took the Ekho Moskvy radio station off the air for distributing what the authorities called information "calling for extremist activities, violence, and premeditated false information" about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Roskomnadzor has warned media across the country that Russia's actions in Ukraine cannot be called a "war" or an "invasion," and should instead be referred to as a "special military operation in Ukraine."

The media regulator on February 28 blocked Current Time and the Crimea.Realities project of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service for refusing to delete their reports about the war in Ukraine.