ASTANA -- Kazakh lawmaker Abzal Quspan said on June 28 that the Central Asian nation's presidential commission on clemencies had rejected a pardon request filed by Karim Masimov, a once-powerful politician who twice served as Kazakhstan's prime minister and now is serving 18 years in prison on charges of high treason and attempting to seize power during unrest in 2022.
Masimov officially asked President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev for clemency in March.
Officials said that despite the appeal, Masimov still faced charges of bribe-taking and money laundering, which are currently under investigation.
Masimov, a close ally of former President Nursultan Nazarbaev, was jailed in April 2023 over his role in deadly events that followed unprecedented anti-government protests in the former Soviet republic in January 2022.
The unrest began in the southwestern town of Zhanaozen in January 2022 over a sudden fuel price hike. But the demonstrations, buffeted by anger over corruption, political stagnation, and widespread injustice, quickly grew.
Much of the protesters' ire appeared directed at Nazarbaev, who ruled Kazakhstan from 1989 until March 2019, when he handed over power to President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.
However, Nazarbaev was widely believed to remain in control behind the scenes.
The protests were violently dispersed by police and military personnel, including troops of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization whom Toqaev invited into the country claiming that "20,000 extremists who were trained in terrorist camps abroad" had attacked Almaty.
The authorities have provided no evidence proving Toqaev’s claim about foreign terrorists.