Kazakh authorities said on Thursday they had detained nearly 1,000 people for taking part in protests over last weekend's presidential election that was won by veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev's hand-picked successor.
The biggest wave of public protests in years has become the first challenge for President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as he takes over the oil-rich nation of 18 million. Fears of violent clashes brought life to a standstill in Almaty, Kazakhstan's biggest city, on Wednesday, when the latest protest took place.
The protesters accuse the government of running a staged vote in which Tokayev faced no real competition. Some, including Western observers, have also disputed the ballot count which gave Tokayev almost 71%of the vote.
At least five separate rallies - which are illegal in Kazakhstan without government permission - have taken place since Sunday's election and the prosecutor-general's office said 957 people had been sent to court.
Of those, 670 have been formally arrested - which in the Kazakh legal system can mean spending a few days or weeks in detention - while 115 have been fined and 172 issued warnings.