ASTANA, February 22 (RIA Novosti) - A Kazakh lawmaker called Wednesday for the dismissal of top officials from the country's National Security Committee (KNB) over their subordinates' alleged involvement in the killing of a prominent opposition leader.
"I think KNB leaders must be dismissed," Dariga Nazarbayeva, a daughter of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the leader of the Asar (Together) party, told a news conference.
The KNB said in a press release Tuesday that five officers from its special antiterrorist unit Aristan had been detained in connection with the killing of Altynbek Sarsenbayev, a leader of the Just Kazakhstan opposition movement.
Kazakhstan's Interior Minister, Bauyrzhan Mukhamedzhanov, said Wednesday that the five suspected killers had already pleaded guilty to murder charges and one other person had been detained as a suspected mastermind of the killing. However, he refused to disclose names of the suspects.
"Five persons who had executed the assassination were tracked down and detained along with a suspected mastermind of the crime," the minister said.
Mukhamedzhanov said the U.S.' Federal Bureau of Investigation was helping with the probe.
The body of Sarsenbayev, 44, as well as those of his bodyguard and driver were found with bullet wounds on the outskirts of Almaty, the country's former capital, in the early hours of February 13.
Kazakhstan's prosecutors said last week they did not rule out the killing was politically motivated.
A former information minister and ambassador to Russia, Sarsenbayev co-chaired the Naghyz Ak Zhol (Bright Way) party within the Just Kazakhstan bloc.
