Ex-Minister of Defense of Kazakhstan sentenced to 12 years in prison for inaction during riots

The former Minister of Defense of Kazakhstan, removed from his post after the riots in the republic in January last year, was sentenced to 12 years under the article on inaction in the service (Article 452 of the Criminal Code of the Republic). About it informed portal Baigenews.kz.

“M. Bektanov was convicted by the verdict of the Specialized Interdistrict Military Court for Criminal Cases dated February 24, 2023 under Part 3 of Article 451 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, he was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 12 years,” the message says.

The ex-minister will serve his term in the establishment of the penitentiary system of “maximum security”. The court declined to provide other details, citing secrecy.

Decree on dismissal of Bektanov President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed January 19, 2022

“During the January events, the armed forces, due to their extremely insecure and lack of initiative, were unable to fulfill the tasks assigned to them with dignity. Minister Bektanov did not show commanding qualities,” he said at the time.

Already in February of the same year, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan began an investigation against him. In January 2023, the head of the department, Berik Asylov, said that the former minister had given “manifestly illegal orders”, had left military strategic facilities unprotected, and was also accused of “abuse of power committed in a combat situation.”

Mass protests began on January 2, 2022 in the west of Kazakhstan due to a sharp increase in the price of liquefied gas for cars. In the following days, the riots spread to other regions of the country. The situation was particularly difficult in Alma-Ata, where demonstrators attacked police and military personnel, vandalized a number of administrative buildings, shopping centers, shops and banks, and briefly seized the airport building.

On the night of January 6, it became known about the decision of the CSTO Council to send a peacekeeping contingent to Kazakhstan, which guarded a number of strategic facilities. The state of emergency was lifted throughout the country on January 19, on the same day the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan reported that all foreign military personnel had been withdrawn from the republic. According to the authorities, as a result of the riots, 225 people were killed, including 19 security officials, and more than 4,500 were injured.