Almaty, Kazakhstan
A Kazakh opposition party accused the government of killing its leader this week. Altynbek Sarsenbaev of the For a Just Kazakhstan Party was found shot in the back of the head, execution-style, his hands tied behind his back. A prominent figure in Kazakh politics, Sarsenbaev had served twice as the head of the Information Ministry and once as ambassador to Russia before he quit in 2004 to protest rigged elections. He was the second opposition leader to be killed in recent months. Last November, Zamanbek Nurkadilov, like Sarsenbaev a vocal critic of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, was found shot dead in his Almaty apartment. Nazarbayev has ordered an investigation into the killings.
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