MOSCOW, October 23 (RIA Novosti) – A newspaper in Kazakhstan says the mayor of a rural district has been found guilty of assaulting a woman for taking a photo of a billboard depicting the country’s president after it had fallen to the ground.
Kostanai provincial court ordered Mayor Kanatbai Turmaganbetov to pay a fine of $560, Nasha Gazeta newspaper reported Wednesday.
Citing the case materials, the newspaper said the mayor had summoned the woman to his office after spotting her taking the photo outside the Kalam-Karasu district government office.
After questioning her, the mayor banged the woman’s head against the wall and punched and kicked her in the chest, the newspaper reported.
Portraits of President Nursultan Nazarbayev are a common sight across Kazakhstan.
The 73-year-old leader is the subject of growing state-engineered adulation in the former Soviet nation he has ruled uninterruptedly for more than two decades.
