ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A Kazakh activist who said he was tortured and beaten while in custody earlier this year has been transferred to house arrest, his lawyer said.
Qosai Makhanbaev's lawyer, Zhalghas Saparkhanova, told RFE/RL that her client was transferred to house arrest after being released on November 3 from a detention center in the Central Asian country's largest city, Almaty.
The 38-year-old activist had been in custody since his arrest on a charge of taking part in "mass disorders" in mid-June after he served a 15-day sentence for picketing the Almaty city prosecutor's office without permission.
Makhanbaev was one of dozens of people who claimed they were tortured by police and jail guards after they were arrested in January during and after anti-government protests in Almaty and other towns and cities in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.
Weeks after his arrest, Makhanbaev was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries and bruises and later released, but ordered not to leave the city while the prosecutor's office investigated his claims of torture.
The Almaty city prosecutor's office said at the time that it had launched 87 probes into alleged torture of inmates, but it appears little headway has been made.
Frustrated with what they believed was a deliberate attempt to quash the investigations, dozens of people who claimed they were beaten while in custody began rallying outside the city prosecutor's office in April.
Makhanbaev was detained in early June for taking part in one of the rallies and sentenced to 15 days in prison.
Protests in the remote town of Zhanaozen in Kazakhstan's southwest over a sudden fuel-price hike in early January quickly spread across the country and led to violent clashes.
Kazakh authorities say at least 238 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, were killed during the violence. Human rights groups say the number of those killed is much higher.
Authorities say hundreds of people were arrested for involvement in the unrest while dozens have been sentenced to prison.
Makhanbaev's transfer to house arrest comes one day after President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev signed a decree granting mass amnesty to hundreds of people charged and imprisoned in connection with the protests. It is not clear if Makhanbaev will be covered in the amnesty.
Rights activists have said that the mass amnesty was initiated to help law enforcement officers who opened fire at unarmed demonstrators evade accountability.