Kazakhstan: 14 years in prison for refusing to give a horse to Nazarbayev’s brother

Another fact of blatant lawlessness, organized by the relatives of the former President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, was made public. Esbol Dzhapbasov, a resident of Kordai village, was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he refused to give his horse to Bolat Nazarbayev, the brother of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The details of this scandalous story were told by the relatives of Esbol Dzhapbasov at a press conference in Almaty.

This story began at the horse race, which were held by the famous horse-breeder of the republic.

“At the horse race in the village of Beriktas, the horses of Esbol came first. The horse named Samal was especially distinguished. Esbol received two cars for the victory of his horses. The then mayor of Talgar district of Almaty region, Zholan Umarov (ACCA: Umarov died of pneumonia in July 2020), congratulated Esbol on his victory and offered to give the stallion to Bolat Nazarbayev, who liked the horse very much, but Esbol refused. Later, Umarov came to Esbol’s stable and advised him to give the animal away so that there would be no problems in the future. He said, ‘You have only yourself to blame if you don’t give it!’,” Adilkhan Shintasov said.

Judging by the further development of events, this was a big mistake. According to Shintasov, employees of the National Security Committee soon arrived in the village of Kordai and began to question the villagers about Esbol Dzhapbasov. In the end, they managed to find out that a woman worked for Dzhapbasov, whose son was detained by the police. To release her son, the woman borrowed 3,000 US dollars from Esbol. The NSC officers forced this woman to slander Dzhapbasov, threatening that if she refused, a case would be opened for giving a bribe and her son would be sent to prison.

“She chose her son. We immediately realized that our relative was being persecuted. After some time, Esbol disappeared. We started looking for where he is. We couldn’t find him for two weeks. After that, a NSC officer called and said that Esbol was in a safe house and he would be released soon. On the day they were supposed to release him, they planted a machine gun in his unfinished house, and planted a pistol in his car, which had already been confiscated by the NSC. And on the basis of this, they enclosed him,” said Shintasov.

And then the investigation established that Esbol Dzhapbasov, together with a member of the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan, Damirbek Asylbek uulu, created a transnational organized criminal group that smuggled goods from China to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Damirbek Asylbek uulu was detained during a special operation by Kazakh security forces in February 2018. Then 35 people were detained. This story made a lot of noise, because Asylbek uulu was the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Legislation, State Structure, Judicial and Legal Issues and Regulations at the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan. It came to that the Chairman of the Lower House of the Kyrgyz Parliament, Dastanbek Dzhumabekov, sent an official letter to his Kazakhstani colleague Nurlan Nigmatulin with a request to assist in conducting an investigation of this case within the framework of international standards.

The trial in this case was held from December 2018 to April 2019. There were 12 people in the dock. All of them received different terms, but Esbol Dzhapbasov got the longest sentence – 14 years in prison.

And the Kyrgyz deputy Damirbek Asylbek uulu was much more fortunate. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. To serve his sentence, the ex-deputy was extradited to Kyrgyzstan with other Kyrgyzstanis convicted in this case. However, in Kyrgyzstan, Asylbek uulu filed a petition for a review of the case. And the Supreme Court granted it. Asylbek uulu was released from criminal liability on charges of organizing a criminal community. As a result, his term was reduced to three years under the article “Economic smuggling”. In 2020, by the court decision, the former deputy was released from punishment under an amnesty in connection with the 75^th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and the 10^th anniversary of the Kyrgyz People’s April Revolution of 2010. On August 21, 2020, Asylbek uulu was released.

“Our relative is in prison for nothing. Everyone knows the true reason and is silent; everyone has become deaf. All this is too obvious. He simply became a victim of black envy, stupid ambitions of people who, before the January events, enjoyed complete permissiveness, full power,” Shintasov said.

In turn, Yesim Dzhapbasov added that after his brother was imprisoned, unknown people arrived in Kordai and tried to take away the horse.

“But we didn’t let them do it,” said Yesim Dzhapbasov. “I had to sell some of the thoroughbred and very expensive horses, but not Samal. This horse is priceless. Esbol loves him very much, so it would never occur to me to do something with this horse.”

It’s noteworthy that the relatives of the convicted villager tried to challenge the court’s decision. According to them, the appellate instance even agreed with the arguments of the defense, but the NSC again intervened in the case, which simply changed the composition of the court in the case. As a result, the decision of the first instance remained in force. Now a well-known Kazakh lawyer, human rights activist Ayman ​​Umarova has joined this case. Esbol Dzhapbasov’s relatives hope that with her help, now that the power of the Nazarbayev clan in the country has actually been eliminated, they will be able to get their relative out of prison.

“For more than four years now, my brother, a disabled person of the second group, has been illegally serving a sentence in prison on a falsified criminal case by the NSC officers,” says Yesim Dzhapbasov. “During all this time, we cannot achieve legality and justice because the almighty NSC has crushed all the organs of justice. Now, when our President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has announced a course towards New Kazakhstan, in which there should be the rule of law, we are trying to reach out and be heard by the highest ranks. We hope that a fair decision will be made.”