ASTANA, January 5 – RIA Novosti. Berik Asylov, the Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan, said that during the riots in January 2022, the security forces started using firearms even before the country’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made a statement about it on television, it was actually legal. norms that allow the use of military weapons to repel attacks that threaten people’s life and health.

Addressing the public on television on January 7, 2022, Tokayev said that in connection with the situation in the country, he ordered law enforcement and the army to open fire to kill criminals who refused to lay down their arms without warning. .

“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that military weapons were used for the first time by the security forces in the defense of the presidential residence (in Alma-Ata) around 16:00 (1:00 Moscow time) on January 5 – ed.),” Asylov said Thursday in parliament’s Mazhilis said at the (lower house) meeting.

And also, according to him, weapons were used by the security forces to police buildings, akimats (administrations), other objects, that is, when the riots turned into a violent stage, and then “cleansed” the cities from gunmen. militants.

“So the attackers were fired long before the President’s famous speech. All discussions on this issue deliberately mislead the public,” the Attorney General said.

“Actually, the security forces don’t need a special team to shoot to kill criminals. There are direct norms of law … that allow the use of military weapons to repel an attack when people’s lives and health are at stake,” Asylov said.

According to him, “it was just such a dangerous situation that developed on the afternoon of January 5 and continued until the 8th – until the situation became localized.”

Mass protests began in Kazakhstan in the first days of 2022 – residents of the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the west of the country opposed the doubling of liquefied gas prices. Then the protests spread to other cities, including the former capital and largest city of the republic, Alma-Ata: looting began there, militants attacked state institutions, took weapons. In response, the authorities declared a state of emergency across the country until January 19 and carried out a counter-terrorism operation. According to the latest data from the country’s Attorney General’s Office, 238 people died as a result of the riots, including 19 security guards.