Police detained 40 alleged supporters of the Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir organization after the latter held an unsanctioned rally in Almaty on 20 January. Almaty city police told the news agency that demonstrators gathered in the morning outside the city\'s central mosque with placards bearing extremist and anti-American slogans. According to a report in \"Liter\" on 21 January, the demonstrators condemned abuses committed against Iraqi Muslims. \"The police have detained almost all the participants in the rally, about 40 people,\" a police spokesperson told Interfax. \"Administrative measures have been applied to them for holding an unauthorized rally.\" Kazakh officials have warned recently that the group, which is unregistered in Kazakhstan and banned elsewhere in Central Asia, is growing more active. On 19 January, a court in Shymkent sentenced Hizb ut-Tahrir activist Serik Tulepbergenov to one year in prison for \"active participation in an unregistered organization,\" Kazinform reported. (Interfax-Kazakhstan)