With a sentence that constitutes an important advance in terms of human rights, four agents were sentenced to prison terms of between 2 and 7 years. They were accused of torturing two prisoners, one of whom died as a result of the assaults.
Astana () – The special court for serious crimes in the city of Shymkent, in Kazakhstan, on June 30 made a decision that was extremely surprising for the country’s traditions, and sentenced four members of the police to between 2 and 7 years of imprisonment They were accused of torturing two prisoners, one of whom died as a result of the assaults. However, both the convicted and the lawyers for the injured parties stated that they were not satisfied and that they will appeal the sentence.
On December 8, 2021, 30-year-old Nurbolat Žumabaev and his slightly younger friend Sergei Petrov were arrested and brought to the Šymkent police department on suspicion of involvement in the theft of a very expensive car. A few hours later, Zhumabaev died in the same building. At first the police stated that he “felt ill during the interrogation and died before the ambulance arrived”, but the relatives later reported that they had found numerous signs of violence on his body. On December 11, Eraly Žumakhanbetov, the director of the Department at the time, admitted that violence had been used against the suspect, which confirmed the version of the relatives that he had died due to beatings. Petrov also stated that he had been subjected to violence and a lawsuit for torture offenses was filed against the 4 policemen, which aroused strong emotions throughout Kazakh society.
Judge Svetlana Šynalieva finally delivered the verdict, a year and a half after the events occurred. Daulet Ajmešov was sentenced to 7 years, Ualikhan Žanibekov to 7 years, Dinmukhammed Isaev to 3.5 years and Ališer Otkirov to 2 years, partially accepting the prosecution’s request, which proposed sentences between 3 and 9 years. Sergej Petrov, a torture survivor, has stated that he will never forgive the defendants and asked the judge to impose the most severe sentence possible. The first three convicts will serve their sentences in a medium security prison and will be deprived of the rank of corporal, while Otkirov, also reduced to the minimum level, will be held in a simple security prison. In addition, they will not be able to exercise managerial functions in any police force for another 3 years; part of the sentence has already been served after the arrest, with preventive and home detention, which will reduce the imprisonment by almost two years.
At the trial, the prosecutor summarized the events from the moment the policemen arrested the two suspects in a bar, and then beat and tortured them for almost an hour at the police station, without having made any entry in the corresponding register. Ajmešov was the first to attack Žumabaev and Petrov, punching and kicking them and throwing them onto the freezing floor of an unheated cell when it was almost -30 degrees. They were then taken to different rooms and, according to the other policemen, Aimeshov was left alone with Zhumabaev and delivered a fatal blow to his chest.
In his testimony, the murderer explained that both had refused to provide the PIN code for their mobile phones, “and we were forced to use batons” to find evidence of their crime. According to the autopsy ordered by the judge – which the relatives released to the press – the death could also have been caused by “electroshock”, with signs of “internal hemorrhage in the liver” and “trauma to the stomach”.
The brother of the deceased and Petrov himself received compensation of 1 million tenge (about 2,000 euros) from each of the convicted, for moral damages, and 5 million (about 10,000 euros) from Ajmešov and Žanibekov, but without other amounts from the state. The plaintiffs also requested the indictment of the now former director of the police district, General Žumakhanbetov, for “negligence in the performance of his duties”, but the judge dismissed the request.
Nurbolat’s body now rests in the cemetery in Kostanae, his hometown, and Kazakh and international humanitarian organizations have called on the Astana government to crack down on torture and violence in prisons and research institutions, where neither even the most elementary rights are recognized for suspects.
