35 people fined after anti-devaluation protests in Almaty

A total of 35 people have been arrested during two-days of protests against devaluation in Almaty, Tengrinews reports citing the press-secretary of the Almaty Court Kuandyk Yeshmet. On the first day of the protests, February 15, 30 people were arrested at the Republic Square and 5 more demonstrators were arrested the next day, on February 16. All of them were fined, except for one man who got 10 day in jail. The amount of fines were different. The highest fine made 37 thousand tenge ($200). Zhanna Baitelova, Yerbol Zhumagulov, Kanagat Takeyeva, Zhanar Serkebayeva, Yevgeniya Plakhina, Valeria Ibrayeva, Georgy Arkhangelsky and among those who were fined for organising the rally in volition of the country's laws. Kazakhstan's legislation requires that organisers of mass events, including rallies inform the authorities of the nature of the event, its place and date 10 before the event takes place. "The arrested demonstrators were delivered to the Bostandyk District Police Office. One of the protestors, Adil Yermekov, was sentence to 10 days in jail, the others were fined," he said. He did not specify why Yermekov got a more server punishment then others. On February 15 around 50 people gathered in front of the Republic Palace (at the crossing of Abay and Dostyk streets, near Kazakhstan hotel). The protest was aimed against the recent devaluation of tenge and called the authorities to attend to the population's social problems. As time went by more people were gathering. According to some reports the protest peaked at around 200 people. An officer from the Prosecutor's Office came of to talk to people. Speaking through a megaphone he asked the marchers to disperse. He explained that the protest was not authorized and thus violated the Kazakhstan legislation. The most active group of protestors tried to break through the fencing by force. After that the police moved in and arrested them.