In the judicial system of Kazakhstan, a scandal flared up over the name of the Chairman of the Supreme Court Zhakip Asanov. It is noteworthy that it was not a simple citizen of the country who came into confrontation with him, but the judge Bakhyt Kaseinov, the Chairman of the judicial board for civil cases of the Almaty city court. An even more remarkable fact is that Kaseinov made accusations against Asanov publicly using social networks.
According to Kaseinov, the reason for the public appeal was the submission to the judicial jury to consider his disciplinary responsibility signed by Asanov.
“Over the 16 years of my work in the justice system, I have not had a single penalty, and I have numerous incentives. Based on the results of work in 2012, I led the delegation on a business trip to France to study the experience of introducing juvenile justice. In 2013, I was recognized as the best judge of the North Kazakhstan region. The district courts headed by me, have been repeatedly recognized as the best in the Republic,” Kaseinov praises himself. “In the period from 2014 to 2017, my judicial board of civil cases of the North Kazakhstan Regional Court on the quality of the administration of justice occupied the first place in the Republic. Perhaps that’s why, the Head of our state Nursultan Nazarbaev and at that time the Chairman of the Supreme Court Kairat Mami at the end of 2017 trusted me to head the judicial board of a large metropolis – the city of Almaty. For a year and a half, I worked for the benefit of the judicial system. I had no complaints and did my best to implement pilot projects of the Supreme Court.”
Further, the Chairman of the judicial collegium for civil cases of the Almaty city court reveals the details of the situation, because of which he risks receiving disciplinary liability.
It follows from the screenshot of Zhakip Asanov’s submission attached to the message that the Almaty court of first and appeal instances made unlawful decisions on civil appeals of two companies to apply the rehabilitation procedure to them (this is a judicial procedure to insolvent debtor during which measures aimed at restoring solvency are applied in order to prevent his elimination). Both statements, as follows from Asanov’s submission, were satisfied, although the courts had no grounds for such decisions.
“Illegal actions of the courts have harmed the interests of the state and its investment attractiveness,” said the Head of the Supreme Court. “Gross violations of the law during the trial were committed by the judge of the specialized inter-district court of Almaty Daniyar Ongeldiev, the Chairman of the judicial board for civil cases of the Almaty city court Bahyt Kaseinov, the judges of the Almaty city court Sholpan Kurmanbekova and Inzhu Alikhan.”
At the end of his presentation, Asanov suggests that the judicial jury at the Supreme Judicial Council of Kazakhstan bring these judges to disciplinary action.
However, Bakhyt Kaseinov claims that this submission is contrary to the norms of the current legislation and encroaches on the constitutional principle of the independence of a judge.
“I believe that the hastily fabricated submission is nothing more than Asanov’s illegal attempt to remove me from my post for personal reasons,” Kaseinov says. “Asanov’s illegal actions are primarily a consequence of my principled position on civil cases in the claims of the well-known billionaire Dinmukhamet Idrisov (friend and companion of the Chairman of the Supreme Court) against the National Bank, Kazakbank, RBK Bank. The trial courts of Almaty made clearly unlawful decisions in favor of Idrisov. Judge Begaydar made an unlawful decision in relation to the National Bank; judge Zholmanova made an unlawful decision in relation to Kazakbank; judge Nurmukhanbetov – in relation to RBK Bank. Due to my principled position and objectivity of the judges of the court of appeal, all three obviously unlawful decisions were canceled, I asked the relevant authorities about the responsibility of the judges of the first instance; all judges were brought to disciplinary responsibility, up to and including dismissal.”
It should be clarified that we are talking about the sensational process between the National Bank of Kazakhstan and Dinmukhamet Idrisov.
Idrisov took up 9.39% shares of “Qazaq banki” in 2014. In May 2017, the National Bank issued a special loan to “Qazaq banki” worth more than $220 million.
A month later, “Qazaq banki” paid back $155.8 million of the loan and remuneration in the amount of $561 thousand to the National Bank. The remaining sum of the debt was outstanding.
In August 2018, the National Bank revoked the license from “Qazaq banki” for conducting banking and other operations. And in December of last year, the financial regulator filed a lawsuit to recover the remaining $64.9 million from businessman Idrisov, since the billionaire was the guarantor of the loan received by “Qazaq banki”. In addition, the National Bank demanded a fee of $766 thousand and a fine of $4.5 million from Idrisov.
Idrisov did not agree with the claims and put forward a counterclaim to invalidate the letter of guarantee. In January of this year, the Medeu District Court of Almaty refused the National Bank to satisfy the claim, and Idrisov’s guarantee obligation was declared invalid. A month later, the Appeal judicial board of the Almaty city court took the National Bank’s side.
“The claim of the National Bank on the repayment of the debt is justified, since the creditor has the right to demand from the guarantor the obligation to pay the money previously transferred to the borrower as a loan,” the Appeal court said. “Idrisov, knowing about the deterioration in the financial solvency of “Qazaq banki”, consciously offered collateral in the form of guarantees that are not subject to liquidity testing, respectively, do not have the right to demand invalidation of the guarantee. The judicial board regards his actions in bringing a counterclaim as evasion of liability for the guarantee obligation.”
So, according to Kaseinov, it turns out that Asanov is trying to help businessman Idrisov get out of financial obligations. At the same time, the judge claims that he has no hope of a fair decision by the Judicial jury.
“There is no hope for an objective consideration of the materials in the Judicial Jury, since the majority of the jury members (6 of 9) are current judges and are more or less dependent on Asanov, on his prosecutorial view on solving problems in the judicial system. My post doesn’t aim to give any assessment to Asanov as the Chairman of the Supreme Court, I only pay attention to Asanov’s clearly illegal actions, as well as to Asanov’s use of his official position to settle accounts personally with me.”
Leave feedback about this