On January 1, Ibrahim K was caught on a security camera in the lobby of the building where he lived kicking to death a stray cat named Eros that his neighbours regularly fed.

He was sentenced in early February to 18 months in jail but was then released for good behaviour, sparking indignation among animal welfare groups and a section of the public in Turkey, whose large stray cat population is often fed and sheltered.

Some 320,000 people signed an online petition demanding a stiffer sentence and in late February the justice ministry said Ibrahim K would be retried after it received a night-time call from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying he was taking a “personal” interest in the case.

Ibrahim K was retried on Wednesday in a court building where hundreds of people thronged the corridors and the atmosphere was tense.

The judges increased his sentence by one year but did not order him to be detained, ignoring the demands of animal welfare groups and internet trolls who have sent him death threats.

One animal rights group is to appeal, saying Ibrahim K should be jailed for the maximum four years allowed by law.

On Thursday, the hashtag #JusticeforEros (#ErosicinAdalet) was trending on X in Turkey and several major newspapers, including Hurriyet, splashed pictures of the dead cat on their front pages.

Hurriyet carried several articles about Eros and “Ibrahim the killer”.

Several celebrities have joined the Justice for Eros appeal, including Argentinian footballer Mauro Icardi, the star striker at Istanbul giants and reigning Turkish champions Galatasaray.

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The National Assembly – the lower house of the country’s parliament – erupted into chaotic scenes as French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne fought to be heard over chants from lawmakers calling for the government to stand down.

“We cannot bet on the future of our pensions,” Borne said. “This reform is necessary.”

Lawmakers in France’s lower house were due to vote on the bill Thursday afternoon. However, the session was stopped early for Borne’s announcement.

The government does not have enough support to pass the bill in the lower house, but a clause in the French constitution means it can enact legislation without an outright majority.

Borne singled out far-right lawmakers in the lower house for not backing the legislation, which was voted through by the French senate earlier Thursday.

Reacting to Borne’s move, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally party, called for the prime minister to step down.

“After the slap that the Prime Minister just gave the French people, by imposing a reform which they do not want, I think that Elisabeth Borne should go,” tweeted Le Pen on Thursday.

Massive protests have been staged regularly throughout France since mid-January, with millions turning out to voice their opposition to the government’s plan to raise the official retirement age for most workers, part of wider reforms to the government’s pension system, one of Europe’s most generous.

The legislation requires French citizens to work until 64, from 62 currently, to qualify for a full state pension.

The head of one of France’s largest unions announced “new mobilizations” following the government’s forced passing of the reforms.

“By resorting to [constitutional article] 49.3, the government demonstrates that it does not have a majority to approve the two-year postponement of the legal retirement age. The political compromise failed. It is the workers who must be listened to when we claim to act on their work,” tweeted Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT, one of the unions leading the protests.

Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT trade union, also called for more strikes and protests, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

A large crowd of peaceful protesters gathered in Paris’ Place de la Concorde following the prime minister’s announcement.

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The latest demonstration on Wednesday came a day after the bill was passed in a first reading in parliament. At least 66 people were arrested on Tuesday evening as protests against the proposed legislation turned violent.

Here is what you need to know.

What does the law entail?

The draft law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence” officially targets the disclosure of money flows from abroad, but critics feared it was a way for the government to crack down on opposing voices.

The proposed legislation stipulates that organizations such as media outlets could be classified as “foreign agents” if they receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.

Critics have pointed to a similar law passed in Russia, where all organizations or individuals receiving financial support from abroad, or under some form of “foreign influence”, are declared “foreign agents”.

Ghia Nodia, Georgia’s former minister of education, told Al Jazeera that the law was likely to stifle press freedom in a country where a large share of the media is controlled by the government.

“A large part of independent media in Georgia gets outside support. The government says that it’s just for transparency but this draft law models the Russian law, and in Russia, the legislation was a step towards repressing independent media,” he said.

Member of parliament Khatia Dekanoidze told Al Jazeera that “Georgia has a very vibrant civil society strengthening democracy and rule of law” that gets funding and technical assistance from the European Union and the United Nations.

Georgia applied for EU membership together with Ukraine and Moldova days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.

In June, EU leaders granted formal candidate status to Kyiv and Chisinau but said Tbilisi must implement a number of reforms first.

Limiting funding opportunities to civil society groups would be an obstacle to joining the European Union, Dekanoidze said.

What is the latest?

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, who is also the chair of Georgian Dream, the party leading the government and parliament’s largest force, has defended the bill, saying it would help root out those working against the interests of the country and the powerful Georgian Orthodox Church. He has also accused Georgia’s “radical opposition” of stirring up protesters to commit “unprecedented violence” during Tuesday’s rallies, according to Georgian news agencies.

But Salome Zourabichvili, the president of Georgia, addressed demonstrators and assured them of her support. The pro-Europe leader said lawmakers who voted for the draft law had violated the Constitution, pledging to veto it if it was passed by parliament.

Protests kicked off again on Wednesday afternoon with a march to mark International Women’s Day, which is a public holiday in Georgia,

Demonstrators carried Georgian and EU flags down the central Rustaveli Avenue towards parliament, shouting “No to the Russian law.”

The interior ministry has accused protesters of petty hooliganism and resisting state authority, Georgian media reported on Wednesday.

“People started an organized attack on the parliament building, throwing so-called ‘Molotov cocktails’ and fireworks,” the ministry said.

Up to 50 police officers were wounded in Tuesday’s clashes, the ministry added, with several still hospitalized.

What was the international reaction?

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – all of which were under control the Soviet Union’s control during the Cold War years – expressed concern about the draft law.

“We call on the Parliament of Georgia to responsibly assess the real interests of the country and refrain from decisions that may undermine aspirations of Georgia’s people to live in a democratic country which is advancing towards the EU and NATO,” wrote the chief diplomats of the three countries, which are members of both organizations.

At the same time, they called on the Georgian government to respect the people’s right to peaceful protest.

In recent years, Georgian authorities have faced mounting international criticism for a perceived backsliding on democracy, seriously damaging Tbilisi’s ties with Brussels.

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Some families were still desperate to locate loved ones who were on the train and a few demonstrations turned violent on Friday as public anger increased over the role that government mismanagement played in the tragedy.

Authorities have conceded that there had been failures in state management of the network.

Audio files were among the items seized during a police raid on the Larissa train station in central Greece, where Tuesday’s crash happened, a judicial source told AFP news agency.

The passenger train ran for several kilometres on the same track as an incoming freight train before the crash, reportedly after the station master in Larissa failed to reroute one of the trains.

It was carrying many students returning from a holiday weekend.

The disaster has sparked widespread criticism of government failures in the rail network, and protesters held another series of demonstrations on Friday in the capital Athens and several major cities across Greece.

In Thessaloniki – Greece’s second largest city – police said a protest of about 2,000 demonstrators turned violent on Thursday, with protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs.

Parents’ frantic search

Survivors described scenes of horror and chaos when the crash occurred, with many dodging smashed glass and debris as the train keeled over.

Some relatives were still desperately awaiting news of missing loved ones with fury and despair.

“No one can tell me anything –– if my child is injured or in intensive care or anything,” one woman told AFP, desperately seeking news of her 23-year-old daughter Kalliopi.

Her 49-year-old husband Lazaros said he’d only discovered there had been a crash by watching the late evening TV news.

“I woke my wife up and asked her if our daughter was on that train. That was when the nightmare began,” he said.

Both have given DNA samples and are now waiting to find out if their daughter is alive.

Roubini Leontari, the chief coroner at Larissa’s general hospital, told broadcaster ERT on Thursday that more than 10 people were still unaccounted for, including two Greek Cypriots.

‘Tragic human error’

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is seeking re-election this spring, has blamed the disaster on “tragic human error”.

But protests pointing the finger at government mismanagement continued on Friday.

Angry demonstrators have been demonstrating in Athens since Wednesday. By Friday, thousands of students were staging sit-ins and demonstrating in the capital and other cities.

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In the capital Lima, police officers used tear gas to repel demonstrators throwing glass bottles and stones, as fires burned in the streets, local TV footage showed.

In the country’s southern Puno region, some 1,500 protesters attacked a police station in the town of Ilave, Interior Minister Vicente Romero said in a statement to news media.

A police station in Zepita, Puno, was also on fire, Romero said.

Health authorities in Ilave reported eight patients hospitalized with injuries, including broken arms and legs, eye contusions and punctured abdomens.

By late afternoon, 58 people had been injured nationwide in demonstrations, according to a report from Peru’s ombudsman.

The unrest followed a day of turmoil in Thursday, when one of Lima’s most historic buildings burned to the ground, as President Dina Boluarte vowed to get tougher on “vandals.”

The destruction of the building, a near-century-old mansion in central Lima, was described by officials as the loss of a “monumental asset.” Authorities are investigating the causes.

Romero on Friday claimed the blaze was “duly planned and arranged.”

Thousands of protesters descended on Lima this week calling for change and angered by the protests’ mounting death toll, which officially stood at 45 on Friday.

Protests have rocked Peru since President Pedro Castillo was ousted in December after he attempted to dissolve the legislature to prevent an impeachment vote.

The unrest has until this week been concentrated in Peru’s south.

In the Cusco region, Glencore’s (GLEN.L) major Antapaccay copper mine suspended operations on Friday after protesters attacked the premises – one of the largest in the country – for the third time this month.

Airports in Arequipa, Cusco and the southern city of Juliaca were also attacked by demonstrators, delivering a fresh blow to Peru’s tourism industry.

“It’s nationwide chaos, you can’t live like this. We are in a terrible uncertainty – the economy, vandalism,” said Lima resident Leonardo Rojas.

The government has extended a state of emergency to six regions, curtailing some civil rights.

But Boluarte has dismissed calls for her to resign and hold snap elections, instead calling for dialogue and promising to punish those involved in the unrest.

“All the rigor of the law will fall on those people who have acted with vandalism,” Boluarte said on Thursday.

Some locals pointed the finger at Boluarte, accusing her of not taking action to quell the protests, which began on Dec. 7 in response to the ouster and arrest of Castillo.

Human rights groups have accused the police and army of using deadly firearms. The police say protesters have used weapons and homemade explosives.

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The arrest of Karim Masimov was announced by the National Security Committee, which Kasimov headed until he was removed this week by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

Authorities say security forces killed 26 demonstrators in this week’s unrest and that 18 law-enforcement officers died. More than 4,400 people have been arrested, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

The protests in the Central Asian nation were the most widespread since Kazakhstan’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Friday he was authorizing law enforcement agencies to open fire “without warning” to end chaotic riots in the country.

“I have given the order to shoot to kill without warning,” Tokayev said in a televised address, adding that “terrorists continue to damage property and use weapons against citizens”.

He rejected any negotiations and promised to “eliminate” those he described as “armed bandits”, claiming that 20,000 rampaged through the major city of Almaty with a “clear plan”.

His address came hours after he said in a statement that “constitutional order has largely been restored in all regions”, adding that operations to restore law and order would continue “until the militants are completely destroyed”.

Kazakhstan’s economic capital Almaty on Thursday afternoon saw gunfire and explosions with police forces seen firing live rounds after surrounding a group of about 200 people, Russia’s Sputnik news service reported.

The military was also deployed by Thursday afternoon, including Russian paratroopers sent in by Moscow after president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asked the regional intergovernmental military organization CSTO to intervene.

Military personnel regained control of the main airport, seized earlier by protesters. Thursday evening saw renewed battles in Almaty’s main square, occupied alternately by troops and hundreds of protesters throughout much of the day.

 Dozens of protesters were reported dead earlier in the day after dissatisfaction over gas prices on Sunday snowballed into Kazakhstan’s biggest demonstrations since it declared independence from the Soviet Union.

The anger over a near-doubling of gas prices has grown to include other grievances including poor living conditions in some areas, as well as 30 years under the rule of the same party.

Kazakhstan authorities confirmed the provisional death toll.

“Last night, extremist forces tried to storm administrative buildings, the Almaty city police department, as well as local departments and police stations,” police spokesperson Saltanat Azirbek told state news channel Khabar-24.

“Dozens of assailants have been eliminated and their identities are being identified,” he added.

Azirbek said an “anti-terrorist” operation was underway in one of the districts of Almaty where the riots were most violent.

Some of the cities in Kazakhstan where protests have been taking place.Euronews

‘Foreign terrorists’

President Tokayev on Wednesday demanded help from Russia and its allies to quell the unrest of the past several days which he claimed was supported by “foreign terrorists”.

“Today I called on the heads of states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to help Kazakhstan defeat the terrorist threat,” Tokayev said on state television, adding that demonstrations are led by “terrorist gangs” who have “received extensive training abroad”.

Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s Prime Minister and CSTO chairman acquiesced to the demand, saying in a statement on Thursday morning that a “CSTO collective peacekeeping force” would be in the country “for a limited period to stabilise and normalise the situation there.”

The decision, he said, was made due to “the threat to the national security and sovereignty of Kazakhstan, caused, among other things, by interference from abroad.”

CSTO member states include Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

“The main tasks of the Collective Peacekeeping Forces of the CSTO will be the protection of important state and military facilities, assistance to law and order forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan in stabilising the situation and returning to the rule of law,” the alliance said in a statement.

Tokayev had on Tuesday dismissed the government and declared a two-week state of emergency and a nighttime curfew.

But protests did not abate with police using stun grenades, tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters in the southeastern city of Almaty, the country’s economic and intellectual capital, on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

The city’s main administration building and the presidential residence were both engulfed in flames on Wednesday after protesters, many of them carrying clubs and shields according to reports in Kazakh media, made their way in.

Demonstrations have also been reported in about a dozen other cities.

Cap on fuel prices and food export ban

Protesters have been chanting anti-government slogans such as “Government resign!” and “The old man out!” referring to former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who remains very influential as the mentor of current leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and the honorary Elbasy, or the “Leader of the Nation”.

A man takes a photo of windows of a police kiosk damaged by demonstrators 
during a protest in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022.Credit: AP

Kazakhstan’s government initially tried to calm protesters by reducing the price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to 50 tenge (€0.1) per litre, compared with 120 at the start of the year.

This represented a significant increase in a country where the minimum wage is 42,500 tenge (€98.7) a month, but that strategy didn’t stop the protests.

The Mangystau region relies on LNG as its main source of fuel for cars and any increase in its price leads to an increase in food prices, which have already risen since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the government’s dismissal, deputy prime minister Alikhan Smailov is to assume the role of interim prime minister until a new cabinet is formed.

A six-month price cap on fuel was introduced on Thursday, which aims to “stabilise the socio-economic situation”, the prime minister’s website announced.

The export of certain types of food products has also been banned in order to stabilise prices.

The airports in Almaty, the major cities of Aktobe and Aktau, and the capital Nur-Sultan were not working on Thursday after flights were cancelled the day before.

Riot police officers hold their weapons ready as they try to stop demonstrators 
during a protest in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022Credit: AP Photo

Independent media down amid internet outages

Amid the protests, Kazakhstan is experiencing a “nationwide internet outage,” according to the internet monitoring observatory, Netblocks.

The country also suffered “mobile internet disruptions” on Tuesday, Netblocks added in a report.

“This incident is likely to severely limit coverage of the escalating anti-government protests,” Netblocks said.

Popular messaging services WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal were unavailable in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, while the websites of two independent media outlets also appeared to be blocked.

Against the backdrop of problems in the functioning of the Internet, the spokeswoman of the Central Bank Oljassa Ramazanova announced the suspension of work of all financial institutions in the country.

What has the international response been?

The US said it is “closely following” the events in Kazakhstan, which the State Department described in a statement on Wednesday evening as “a valued partner.”

“We condemn the acts of violence and destruction of property and call for restraint by both the authorities and protesters,” it added, calling for “all Kazakhstanis to respect and defend constitutional institutions, human rights, and media freedom, including through the restoration of internet service.”

“We urge all parties to find a peaceful resolution of the state of emergency,” it said.

Meanwhile, Russia has called for “dialogue” with the foreign minister adding in a statement that they “support a peaceful solution to all problems within the legal and constitutional framework and through dialogue, not through street riots and violation of laws.”

Kazakhstan is of crucial importance to Russia as an economic partner and the former president is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.

London called for a peaceful resolution of the protests with a spokesman for prime minister Boris Johnson telling reporters on Thursday: “We are concerned about the violent clashes and are following developments closely.”

France’s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian urged all parties involved in the crisis, including Russia and its CSTO allies, to “show moderation” and “to open a dialogue”, describing the events of the previous 24 hours as “extremely worrying”.

Josep Borrell, the European’s chief diplomat stressed that the “rights and security of civilians must be guaranteed.”

“External military assistance brings back memories of situations to be avoided,” he said, adding that the bloc “is ready to support in addressing this crisis.”

Temur Umarov, a scientific adviser to the Carnegie Moscow Centre, told Euronews the protests are about more than fuel prices. He expects dialogue to take place, as long as the unrest does not get out of hand.

“Reforms will be on their way. In fact, we’ve been seeing them for the last few years. It’s a trend that would have happened without the protests, but now it will accelerate and the authorities will go for them even more,” Umarov explained.

“But they are possible only if the protests will not cross some line over which the authorities will think they are in some kind of stalemate. And then we will see violence.”

“Kazakhstan is not a democracy, but if we compare Kazakhstan’s regime with other Central Asian regimes (in Uzbekistan, for example, or in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the ever-changing Kyrgyzstan) we can see that Kazakhstan is more or less democratic compared to other countries,” he concluded.

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The move triggered marches in Moscow and the arrest of more than 1,000 protesters.

Navalny, who has accused the Russian president and his allies of stealing billions, was jailed for violating parole from a 2014 sentence for embezzlement in a case he has said was politically motivated.

After the verdict, several hundred Navalny supporters marched in central Moscow. Videos by local media or shared on social media showed police in body armor hitting protesters with staves. More than 1,000 people were arrested across the country in the course of the day, according to the independent monitoring group OVD-info.

The court’s decision makes Navalny the most prominent political prisoner in Russia and maybe the most important verdict against a foe of Putin’s since the 2005 jailing of the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Ahead of the verdict, Navalny looked across the courtroom to his wife Yulia and traced a heart on the glass around the dock.

After a judge read the verdict, subtracting the 10 months he had spent under house arrest from his original three-and-a-half-year sentence, Yulia took off her mask, smiled, waved, and then shrugged.

“Don’t be sad! Everything’s going to be alright!” Navalny yelled to her. She declined to comment as she walked out of the courtroom, looking straight ahead.

Outside the courthouse, she stood next to Navalny’s two lawyers, Olga Mikhailova and Vladimir Kobzev. They said they planned to appeal to the European court of human rights. “You saw what happened in there,” Mikhailova said. “It was a horror, like always.”

Russian police standing guard near the Moscow city court on Tuesday. 
Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA

The Kremlin’s decision to send Navalny to prison came despite the threat of further street protests and international condemnation from the US government and other foreign leaders. Diplomats from more than half a dozen western countries attended the court.

In a fiery speech from a Moscow city courtroom decorated with portraits of Cicero and Montesquieu ahead of the sentencing, Navalny had accused Putin of ordering his assassination with the poison novichok and said that the Russian leader’s “only method is killing people”.

The US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, said Washington was “deeply concerned” and reiterated calls for Navalny’s unconditional and immediate release, saying it would coordinate with allies to hold Russia accountable.

Boris Johnson described the ruling as “pure cowardice,” which failed to meet “the most basic standards of justice”.

“Alexey Navalny must be released immediately,” he wrote.

The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, described it as a “bitter blow” to the rule of law in Russia.

The sentencing has shown the exhaustion of Russia’s leaders with Navalny, who even from jail released a detailed investigation into a £1bn Black Sea palace allegedly built for Putin’s use.

He was arrested upon returning to Russia last month after surviving a suspected FSB assassination attempt in August 2020 with a novichok poison similar to that used in Salisbury in 2018.

Russian prison officials had said while Navalny recovered in Germany that they would seek to jail him for violating parole in the 2014 case in an apparent attempt to keep the Kremlin critic in exile, but he flew back all the same.

“Someone did not want me to take a single step on my country’s territory as a free man. And we know who and we know why – the hatred and fear of one man, living in a bunker, whom I offended by surviving when he tried to have me killed,” he said of Putin.

“His only method is killing people. However much he pretends to be a great geopolitician, he’ll go into history as a poisoner.”

“We all remember Alexander the Liberator and Yaroslav the Wise. Now we’ll have Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants.”

“This isn’t a political rally,” the judge interrupted him at one point. “Let’s not do politics here.”

The 16-minute speech may be one of the opposition leader’s last public orations in the coming years. Investigators are preparing to bring new charges against Navalny on fraud and other charges that could carry a sentence of another decade in a penal colony if they are brought to trial.

In his remarks, Navalny called on his supporters not to fear the government, saying: “You can’t imprison the whole country.” More than 5,000 people were detained in nationwide protests this weekend and senior Navalny aides have been swept up in government raids.

“Locking me up isn’t difficult,” Navalny told the court. “This is happening to intimidate large numbers of people. They’re imprisoning one person to frighten millions.”

He called the court case a “performance”. “This is what happens when lawlessness and tyranny become the essence of a political system, and it’s horrifying,” he said.

For years, the government had harassed Navalny, holding him under house arrest, jailing his aides and imprisoning his brother for three-and-a-half years in 2014. But until Tuesday, it had stopped short of giving him a long prison sentence, apparently fearing a backlash.

In 2013, a judge abruptly set Navalny free on parole one day after thousands protested against his five-year prison sentence on the streets outside the Kremlin. The sudden about-face confirmed what many in the opposition believed: that important court decisions are made in the Kremlin.

The government’s mood apparently changed following the failed assassination attempt and a deeply embarrassing investigation by Bellingcat, which exposed the attack as the work of an FSB hit squad who had shadowed Navalny around Russia for years. In a flourish, Navalny managed to elicit a confession from a member of the FSB, the Russian intelligence service that Putin formerly headed.

Diplomats at the hearing were chased by state television journalists peppering them with questions about whether they were extending Navalny’s political support. Navalny’s allies have also called for new sanctions against some of Putin’s closest allies and the officials involved in his case.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, called the western diplomats’ presence “meddling”.

“It exposes the mean and illegal role of the collective west in attempts to restrain Russia,” she said. “Or is it an attempt to put psychological pressure on the judge?”

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In parts of eastern Europe, such as Belarus and Bulgaria, a stronger wind of change is blowing.

Since mid-August, protesters have been gathering in the Belarusian capital Minsk to oppose the results of the country’s presidential election. Long-time president Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, was declared the winner with an 80 per cent vote share. His critics say the election was rigged in his favour.

In Bulgaria, meanwhile, they have been daily protests since the summer calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, his centre-right government and the chief prosecutor. The protesters allege endemic corruption.

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On Friday evening officers of the Carabineros police force used plumes of teargas and high-pressure water jets to disperse protesters congregating in Plaza Italia, where pockets of violence flared amid a heavy police presence.

Videos show a 16-year-old boy being bundled over the railings of a bridge by a police officer. The boy fell into the dirty concrete channel of the Mapocho river, where he lay motionless, face down in the shallow water.

“As the protesters fled, we saw the moment that the officer intercepted [the boy] and threw him from the bridge,” said Pavel Pavelic Jofre, who led a company of volunteers at the protests.

“We managed to get two of our group down to assist him, and after stabilising his condition the fire brigade were able to lift him away from the river to be taken to hospital.”

Addressing the incident in a televised address, General Enrique Monrás, a spokesperson for the Carabineros, did not rule out the force’s responsibility for what had happened, but said that in his opinion, the boy “lost his balance and fell” during an arrest.

He said the force had its own set of videos that absolved it of blame, although he did not say what they showed.

The boy was said to be in a stable condition in the Santa María Clinic, a short distance from where the incident took place.

As images began to filter on to social media, the Carabineros faced renewed pressure to act on a perceived culture of brutality.

Opposition politicians called for General Mario Rozas, the head of the Carabineros, to resign following a string of alleged human rights violations.

Since October last year Chile has been rocked by a wave of mass protests against rampant inequality and a host of systemic injustices. The ensuing police crackdown has been condemned internationally.

Chile’s public prosecutor has said that since last October 8,575 alleged human rights violations have been perpetrated by the Carabineros in the repression of protests, and only 16 police agents have been stood down as a result.

A series of cabinet reshuffles have resulted in three men successively being put in charge of the interior ministry since the demonstrations began, yet the police have retained the support of the government in spite of the numerous allegations against them.

Several international missions, including a delegation sent by the UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile, delivered damning reports detailing numerous violations that have occurred during the protests, including alleged torture and sexual abuse.

Nonetheless, President Sebastián Piñera used his address before the UN general assembly less than two weeks ago to call for values such as respect for human rights to be strengthened around the world.

Chile’s constitutional referendum will be held on 25 October. In the wake of the latest scandal enveloping the Carabineros, calls went out on social media for further protests to be held over the weekend.

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