Kazakhstan: daughter of ex-mayor, who was detained for bribe, asks the President for help

Ainura Azikhanova, a law enforcement officer from Semey city, posted a video message to the country’s President Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev on social networks, in which she asks to take personal control over the case of her father, the mayor of Ayagoz city, located in the East Kazakhstan region.

The mayor of Ayagoz Kuanysh Azikhanov was detained in September last year. As ACCA has already reported, according to information provided by the Anti-Corruption Agency, Azikhanov was charged with accepting a large bribe of $ 2.8 thousand. The mayor allegedly received money from a private entrepreneur Zhandos Bulekbaev for signing acts of work performed under a public procurement agreement. In particular, the point was that the construction of two 60-apartment buildings in Ayagoz within the framework of the state program “Nurly zhol”, which were to be commissioned in 2020. The total cost of these two buildings is about US $ 2 million.

Now the case of the former mayor is in court. According to Ainura Azikhanova, her father was set up, and there are many inconsistencies in the criminal case.

In February, after another court hearing in the case of former mayor, Ainura Azikhanova took a video message to the head of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Alik Shpekbaev, in which she stated that the employees of the Anti-Corruption Agency had falsified the materials of the case.

“I ask you to prosecute employees of the Anti-Corruption Agency of Semipalatinsk region of the East Kazakhstan region – the investigators Kuanysh Erdenbekov and Darkhan Ibraev. On February 4, 2021, these officers came to Ayagoz district court building, took the materials on the criminal case against my father, without permission untied the threads with which the materials of the criminal case were tied, and replaced the letter of the witness – the director of the company “Korkem” Zhandos Bulekbaev,” Azikhanova said in her video message.

She also noted that the defense has the original letter from Bulekbaev, and this letter is different from what the investigators had planted in the case.

“Dear Alik Zhatkanbaevich! The employees Erdenbekov and Ibraev committed a crime and damaged the image of the Anti-Corruption Agency. In addition, at the trial, it turned out that these officers had falsified the whole case; the testimony of the witnesses was false. It turns out that these employees went on a crime just to sue a person unfairly… Please, stop this horror, this lawlessness! I demand to initiate criminal proceedings against Erdenbekov and Ibraev,” called the ex-mayor’s daughter.

At a court hearing in March, Azikhanova, who is her father’s public defender, challenged the judge Medet Rakhatayev. However, she was refused by the judge Zhumadilova. Then, Azikhanova challenged her too, explaining that Zhumadilova had previously been an investigating judge and had arrested her father.

“However, the judge Zhumadilova ignored my application to challenge her and continued the hearing. Under such circumstances, the judge M. Rakhatayev hasn’t the right to conduct this case until my application for disqualification of the judge Zhumadilova is considered.

My application hasn’t yet been considered. I ask you, Zhakip Kazhmanovich, to take measures against the judges of this court and stop such actions of the judges of Ayagoz district court in order to preserve and strengthen the image of the justice bodies, which are undermined in this district court,” Azikhanova wrote in her appeal to the chairman of the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan Zhakip Asanov.

And after the next court session, the young lady recorded a new video message, now addressed to the President of Kazakhstan Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev.

“The trial in Ayagoz is being conducted only in the direction of full accusation. Since the beginning of this trial, shameful misconduct occurs, and the judge and the prosecutor break the law themselves. Dear compatriots! Please, repost this video and help to get to the Supreme Court, to the President! Here the fate of not only one person, but also several families is at stake!” says the explanation to the video.

In her appeal, the young lady asks the President to take the matter under his personal control.

“I am recording this video message for you to get a fair trial for my father. They have only one goal – to jail my father. There can’t be any question of justice or honesty. The court of Ayagoz has long lost its authority in the eyes of the common people. I ask you to consider this case at a new level,” sums up Azikhanova.