ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Jailed Kazakh opposition figure Zhanbolat Mamai faces up to 10 years in prison after authorities additionally charged him with organizing mass disorders and distributing false information in an emergency situation.
Mamai's wife, Inga Imanbai, told RFE/RL on June 8 that investigators are now accusing her husband of organizing anti-government protests that shook the Central Asian nation in early January, leaving at least 230 people dead.
President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has positioned himself as a reformer who aims to open up the country to new voices, but Mamai, the 33-year-old leader of the unregistered Democratic Party of Kazakhstan was arrested in mid-March on charges of insulting an authority and distributing false information. Those charges carried a penalty of up to one year in prison.
Mamai, known for his harsh criticism of the nation's authoritarian government, has been trying to register the Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, but claims he is being prevented from doing so by the government. He says officials only permit parties loyal to the political establishment to be legally registered.
Kazakhstan was ruled by authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev from when it gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 until Toqaev succeeded him in 2019.
Over the past three decades, several Kazakh opposition figures have been killed while many have also been jailed or forced to flee the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.
Toqaev recently broadened his powers after Nazarbaev and his clan left the tightly controlled oil-rich nation's political scene following the unprecedented deadly anti-government protests in January.
The protests started over a fuel price hike and spread across Kazakhstan because of discontent with the cronyism that has long plagued the country.
