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Kazakhstan security chief resigns after five agents arrested

Kazakhstan's state security chief has tendered his resignation following the arrest of five of his agents over the murder of an opposition politician, a security source said yesterday.

The Central Asian country's KNB national security service, successor to the Soviet-era KGB, announced earlier that five "rogue" members of its elite combat unit, Arystan, had been arrested over the Feb. 11 murder of Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly.

The source in the KNB said that President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has strongly condemned the murder, had yet to approve the resignation letter of KNB head Nartay Dutbayev.

"He [Dutbayev] signed a letter of resignation yesterday. The decision will be taken by the president himself," the source said.

The arrest of members of the elite forces is embarrassing for Nazarbayev, the country's veteran leader who, though popular with voters, is accused by critics of stamping out dissent.

Sarsenbaiuly, a 43-year-old former minister and ambassador, was Nazarbayev's confidant until 2003 when he defected to the opposition and became a critic of his former master.

His body was found near the main city Almaty last week with bullet wounds in the back and head, alongside the bodies of his bodyguard and driver.

Yesterday's resignation came after the influential elder daughter of Kazakhstan's president yesterday publicly called on Dutbayev to quit.

"The Arystan service has discredited itself over this case," President Nursultan Nazarbayev's elder daughter Dariga told reporters in the Kazakh capital before the resignation.

Arystan, which means "lion" in Kazakh, is a special anti-terrorist unit of the KNB which reports directly to Dutbayev.

The opposition has blamed top government officials for the murder of Sarsenbaiuly, a critic of Nazarbayev, and said the KNB's announcement only confirmed their suspicions that his death was a political assassination.
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