80 people detained following unsanctioned protest actions in Nur-Sultan and Almaty - MIA

Astana. May 2. KazTAG - 80 people have been detained following unsanctioned protest actions in Nur-Sultan and Almaty, reports the Ministry of Interior Affairs.
"Despite the official statement of the General Prosecutor's Action unsanctioned protest actions took place in Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Semey, Karaganda and Aktobe on May 1. The participants of the protest action had a chance to declare their position and opinion concerning social and other problematic issues. However, in Nur-Sultan and Almaty some people behaved aggressively, they were shouting slogans of the banned extremist organization DVK, violated public order. In this regard, representatives of akimats and prosecutors explained to them the regulations of legislation on the procedure for holding peaceful rallies, meetings and processions. Some citizens did not comply with the requirements to stop illegal actions. After that, the police took measures to provide public order. As a result, 80 protestors were taken to the police departments in the capital and Almaty, ” said Nurdilda Oraz, official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan.
According to him, "legal assessment will be given to their actions".
“The Ministry of Interior Affairs strongly recommends people not to succumb to provocations and comply with the requirements of the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” he added.
People who went to a peaceful rally were detained in Almaty, Nur-Sultan and Karaganda. The deputy head of the Nur-Sultan police department, Bakhytzhan Malybayev, said that no one had been beaten and that people had been detained “for breaking the law”.
According to the reporters, dozens of protesters were detained in Nur-Sultan, in Almaty, the security forces cordoned off the protesters in the Gorky Park. In Nur-Sultan, some of the detainees were attacked by special forces officers with batons, the police selectively arrested the marchers and loaded them into buses, while other people demanded the police to release the detainees. Security forces cordoned off people in a ring in the Gorky Park, covered vehicles arrived to the park  from which officers of law enforcement agencies came out with shields.
It was later reported that some of the dozens of detainees were released by the Nur-Sultan police. At about 15.30 local time, at the intersection of Republic Avenue and Abay, after the talks, the police released about a dozen people from a bus. According to the head of the police department of Nur-Sultan Yerzhan Sadenov, "no one was beaten" in the time of people's detention and promised to bring the perpetrators to justice if the fact of beating  is confirmed.