Nazarbayev's nephew sacked as deputy state security chief

Samat Abish, the nephew of former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, was sacked as second-in-command at the National Security committee on Monday, the president's office said.

The decision was made by the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on January 17.

The authorities have detained Karim Masimov, the former head of the National Security Committee, and two of his deputies, on charges of treason and said the bout of violence was an attempted coup d'etat.