In Pavlodar, a trial in a high-profile case of torture of disabled children by employees of the Regional Children’s Psychoneurological Center for the provision of special social services has ended. All 16 accused of child abuse were sentenced to 3.5 years of restriction of freedom!
The country learned about the hard-living of disabled children in the Pavlodar mental hospital at the end of last year. The regional neuropsychiatric center of Pavlodar contains disabled children aged from three to eighteen years with neuropsychiatric pathologies. The staff of this institution tied children by the arms and legs to the beds during nap hours and at night.
The trial began in March of this year. In May, the first three decisions were made in relation to nurses – the court imposed them 3 years and 6 months in prison.
On the remaining 13 persons involved in this case, the decision was made at the end of last week. According to the court’s verdict, all the accused got the same punishment.
Such a mild sentence did not leave the people of Kazakhstan indifferent. A wave of indignation swept through social networks, which forced the chairman of the city court No. 2 of Pavlodar, Nurlan Kaiyrbekov, to make an explanation of the court decision:
“From March to September 25, court №2 considered 16 criminal cases against three educators and 13 nurses of the mental hospital. Of these, 12 cases were considered in conciliation proceedings, since procedural agreements were considered in the form of a plea bargain concluded between the prosecutor and the defendants with the consent of the victims and their lawyers. Four cases were considered in the general order. All cases were considered in closed court hearings, since they concerned the interests of underage victims, ”explained Kaiyrbekov.
He also noted that the guilt of the defendants was fully proven by their own testimony, as well as by the testimony of witnesses and recordings from CCTV cameras.
“The videos show the actions of the workers of this center, who repeatedly tied children to beds during nap hours and at night, thereby causing them moral and physical suffering, but without causing serious or moderate harm to health. The prosecutor asked for a restriction of freedom for all defendants. The legal representatives of the interests of the victims of minors – their parents and lawyers – agreed with this. At the time of the commission of the offense, the article of the Criminal Code imputed to the defendants provided for a restriction or imprisonment for a term of three to seven years. According to the law, a more severe punishment is imposed only if there is no reason to impose a less severe punishment. The defendants, however, have not been previously convicted, are positively characterized by their place of residence, and have minor children. Not to recognize this circumstance as mitigating – according to the law, the court had no right. There were no aggravating circumstances in the indictments,” the chairman of the court emphasized.
That is why, according to him, it was decided to impose a sentence of three and a half years of restriction of freedom for everyone with the establishment of probationary control for the entire period of punishment.
“During probationary control, they must not change their place of residence, study or work without notifying the probation service; they are prohibited from visiting entertainment establishments – bars, cafes, restaurants, discos, and nightclubs. In the event of malicious evasion from the execution of this punishment, the remaining suspended sentence will be replaced by a real one at the rate of one day of imprisonment for one day of restriction of freedom. This punishment is necessary and sufficient to achieve the goal of correcting the perpetrators and preventing them from committing new criminal offenses. Currently, all the guilty persons have been terminated. Nine out of 16 sentences have come into legal force, ”Kayirbekov summed up.
Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan, this is far from the first case when employees of children’s state institutions mock their wards. Three days before the verdict was pronounced in Pavlodar, a trial in a similar case ended in Atyrau. Two nurses of the boarding school for children with psychoneurological disabilities tortured the students of this institution. However, the women went much further than their Pavlodar colleagues: they forced the children to work, beat them, and humiliated them in every possible way. Children, due to the peculiarities of their mental development, could not tell about what they were exposed to. All this continued for a long time until March 2019, when the recordings from CCTV cameras, which captured the torture of children by the nurses, went online. After that, a prosecutor’s check was started, which confirmed the guilt of the nurses. However, in Atyrau, the court showed humanity towards the defendants and also appointed them three and a half years of restriction of freedom.
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