ASTANA -- The former chief of police of Kazakhstan's southern region of Almaty, General Serik Kudebaev, has fled the country to evade a trial on charges of abusing his office in a case related to the deadly mass unrest that rocked the nation in January last year.
Deputy Prosecutor-General Zhandos Omiraliev said on April 12 that Kudebaev, who had been ordered not to leave the country, failed to show up at his trial last week.
According to Omiraliev, authorities in neighboring Kyrgyzstan are investigating Kudebaev's alleged illegal border crossing.
Almaty regional police said earlier that Kudebaev might have illegally crossed the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border in late March and left Kyrgyzstan for Turkey from the international airport in Bishkek.
Omiraliev said a special note had been sent to Turkish authorities regarding Kudebaev, who was added to the wanted list.
Kudebaev is one of dozens of former law enforcement officials and individuals close to former President Nursultan Nazarbaev to face various charges following January 2022 anti-government protests that were violently dispersed, leaving at least 238 people dead.
President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has taken a series of moves since the unrests to push Nazarbaev, who ruled the tightly controlled former Soviet republic with an iron fist for almost three decades, further into the background following his resignation in 2019.
Though he officially stepped down as president, Nazarbaev retained sweeping powers as the head of the country's powerful Security Council. He also enjoyed substantial powers by holding the title of elbasy -- the leader of the nation.
In the wake of the deadly unrest last year, Toqaev stripped Nazarbaev of his Security Council role, taking it over himself. Since then, several of Nazarbaev’s relatives and allies have been pushed out of their positions or have resigned.
Earlier this year, Toqaev sign a law that abolished Nazarbaev's elbasy title.
Kazakh critics say Toqaev's initiatives were cosmetic and did not change the nature of the autocratic system in a country that has been plagued for years by rampant corruption and nepotism.