An award-winning journalist, Saniya Toiken, was detained and held overnight by police in the town of Zhanaozen, Western Kazakhstan, on 11 March after covering a rally of unemployed people who had gathered to express their discontent at their economic struggles. It was later reported that she had been fined the equivalent of US$113 for purportedly declining to submit to police orders.
Police arrested Toiken after a brawl had taken place at a café where she had been eating. The police stated that she had been arrested in relation to the brawl and that the arrest was not politically motivated. However, others involved in the brawl were released immediately, and Toiken was held in custody for six hours. Earlier on 11 March, Toiken had been covering a gathering outside the mayor’s office of several dozen Zhanaozen residents who were protesting what they say is the government’s failure to lighten the burdens of unemployment. The crowd also demanded to speak directly to the mayor, Adilbek Dauylbayev. The picket was one of several that has taken place in the remote oil town since February 2019. Most of the participants of the rallies were oil workers complaining there is not enough work to go around in their area of specialisation.
Toiken is well known within western Kazakhstan for her extensive efforts to document the hardships of life in the oil-rich yet cash-poor region. Her work has regularly earned her unwelcome attention
from the police, however. This was the second time in the space of a month that she was taken into custody by law enforcement officers.