Former chief of Kazakh intelligence service Masimov sentenced to 18 years for treason

Karim Massimov, who during the riots in January 2022, served as chairman of the country’s main intelligence service, the KNB, was sentenced on April 24 to 18 years in prison. The verdict was passed by the Specialized Inter-District Court of Astana for Criminal Cases. Massimov’s former deputies Anuar Sadykulov, Daulet Yergozhin and Marat Osipov received 16, 15 and three years in prison respectively. This is reported by the site of the court.

Masimov and Sadykulov were found guilty under three articles: high treason (part 1 of article 175 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan), forcible seizure of power (part 3 of article 179 of the Criminal Code) and abuse of power and official authority (paragraph 3 of part 4 of article 362 UK). Yergozhin – under the last two articles, Osipov – in excess of official authority. Massimov, Sadykulov and Yergozhin are banned from holding public office for life. “Masimov, Sadykulov, Yergozhin and Osipov have been stripped of their ranks of generals and state awards. More than 10 billion tenge and $24 million were recovered from them in state revenue. The verdict has not entered into force,” the press service of the court explained.

Massimov was taken into custody in January 2022 immediately after the riots that swept through the country’s largest city, Alma-Ata, and other regions of the country. The trigger for the start of the protests was a sharp increase in the price of liquefied gas. The state of emergency has been declared in the country. It was possible to stabilize the situation only after the introduction of the CSTO peacekeeping forces into the republic, the basis of which were units of the Russian Airborne Forces. As a result of the riots, 238 people were killed, including 19 security officials, and more than 4,300 people were injured. Subsequently, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev replaced eight of the 16 ministers in the government, the former head of state Nazarbayev was removed from the post of leader of the ruling Nur Otan party and stripped of the title of father of the nation (elbasy). Relatives of the ex-president also lost their positions.

In Kazakhstan, Massimov is considered a close associate of Nazarbayev. With him, he twice, in 2007-2012. and 2014-2016, headed the government, and in between led the presidential administration. In 2016, he became chairman of the KNB.

Masimov’s verdict is political in nature, Stanislav Pritchin, a senior researcher at the Center for Post-Soviet Studies at IMEMO RAS, is sure. A feature of the process is the lack of open evidence of guilt, the case materials are classified, says Pritchin. “For the current president and his team, Massimov’s case is of a fundamental nature, and it is his accusation that is the key link legitimizing the final transfer of power from Nazarbayev to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev,” the expert emphasizes. In his opinion, the main function of the verdict is to show that under Nazarbayev, the most important posts were held by people who were able to go against the state for their own interests. “18 years from the point of view of the article is a normal term, but from the point of view of a political career, Masimov is put an end to: he has no chance, given his age, to continue the political struggle. The verdict is a signal to all those who do not agree with Tokayev’s leadership that they need to act within the constitutional framework, not using socio-economic problems to their advantage,” says Pritchin.

The term given to Massimov can be regarded as moderate, says Daria Chizhova, researcher at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. According to her, this sentence is an important marker of the desire to end the acute phase of the inter-elite conflict between the old “Nazarbayev Guard” and the new team of Tokayev. Now, the expert notes, it is important for Tokayev to establish inter-elite peace against the backdrop of acute socio-economic problems that need to be addressed. “Rather, the Massimov case is a story that “should be closed”: last year there were already several waves of rehabilitation of participants and organizers of the riots,” says Chizhova. She emphasizes that Massimov was by no means the only “scapegoat” appointed – two of his three deputies received terms comparable to his. This also suggests that he was not assigned the main role in organizing the riots.

Nurlan Gasimov took part in the preparation of the article