ALMATY -- Police in Almaty detained a group of young activists ahead of a planned public action to support Internet freedoms on World Press Freedom Day on April 24, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported.
One of the detainees, Zhanar Kasymbekova, told RFE/RL that police stopped them at a bus stop and demanded to see the contents of their bags.
When they asked the policemen to explain the request, they said, they were forcibly escorted into a police car and taken to Almaty's Bostandyk district police station.
The head of the Almaty-based Ar-Rukh-Khak human rights foundation, Bakhytzhan Toregozhina, told RFE/RL that police appear to have known about the young activists' plans and detained them to prevent their action to protest censorship in the Internet.
One of the detainees, Zhanar Kasymbekova, told RFE/RL that police stopped them at a bus stop and demanded to see the contents of their bags.
When they asked the policemen to explain the request, they said, they were forcibly escorted into a police car and taken to Almaty's Bostandyk district police station.
The head of the Almaty-based Ar-Rukh-Khak human rights foundation, Bakhytzhan Toregozhina, told RFE/RL that police appear to have known about the young activists' plans and detained them to prevent their action to protest censorship in the Internet.