ISTANBUL

Kazakhstan's former defense minister was sentenced to 12 years in prison over failure to act during nationwide protests early last year, local media reported on Thursday.

Murat Bektanov, who served as defense chief for roughly a year until mid-January 2022, was convicted of "dereliction of duty" in a ruling dated Feb. 24, according to the website BaigeNews, citing a specialized military court.

The court in the capital Astana added that Bektanov would be held in a high-security prison but did not provide further details on the case, classified as "top secret," the news website added .

Bektanov was relieved of his duties by a presidential decree in January 2022 and detained a month later by prosecutors that launched a probe against him for suspected culpable inaction during a wave of violent unrest that had erupted in the Central Asian country weeks earlier.

In January 2022, massive protests broke out in Kazakhstan over fuel price rises and later escalated into clashes with police, with the most violent incidents taking place in Kazakhstan's former capital and largest city Almaty.

Tokayev turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-led military bloc, for help, and peacekeepers from Russia, Belarus, Armenia, and Tajikistan came to the country to back Kazakh law enforcement in restoring order.