Akylbek Muratbai, an activist of the Karakalpak diaspora, was detained in Almaty on the night of February 15. According to human rights defenders, the arrest is linked to an official request from neighboring Uzbekistan. The Uzbek government had violently repressed a popular protest in July 2022 in the north-western region of Karakalpakstan and many activists had left Uzbekistan in fear of reprisals. Muratbai has lived in Kazakhstan for more than a decade and chronicled pressure on his fellow Karakalpak activists on social media.