Kazakh security forces cracking down on unrest last month have arbitrarily arrested peaceful protesters, ill-treated and tortured detainees, and interfered with detainees' access to lawyers, Human Rights Watch says.
The authorities say at least 227 people were killed in the worst bout of political violence in the Central Asian in its post-Soviet history, which saw former president Nursultan Nazarbayev and his relatives ousted from all positions of power.
About 10,000 people were detained after the unrest, the authorities said. Most were released within days but some have complained on social and local media beatings and torture at the hands of police.
