Almost half of participants in Zhanaozen riots amnestied
AKTAU. June 4 (Interfax) - The sentence handed out to the participants in the December 2011 events in the city of Zhanaozen was read out in the Aktau City Court in Mangistau region of Kazakhstan on Monday.
Seventeen people have received suspended prison sentences or have received prison sentences, but were amnestied, an Interfax correspondent has reported.
Three of the 37 defendants have been acquitted.
The trial is chaired by Justice Orazbai Nagashybayev in the building of the young people's center Arman.
The trial of the people suspected of organizing mass riots in Zhanaozen began on March 27. The 37 defendants are represented by 12 lawyers. There are 188 victims and 45 witnesses in this case.
The mass riots, in which 15 people were killed and over 100 were wounded, occurred in Zhanaozen and the village of Shetle, Mangistau region, on December 16-17, 2011. The imitators of the riots in Shetle were sentenced to prison sentences ranging from two to seven years in prison on May 21.