Kazakhstan: Prisoner ripped open his stomach in video message to President

Another scandal occurred in the penitentiary system of Kazakhstan. In the pre-trial detention center of the city of Uralsk (West Kazakhstan region), prisoner Vitaly Turenkov ripped open his stomach after appealing to the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Turenkov recorded his appeal and self-infliction of injury on video.

“Dear President, government and human rights organizations! I was convicted of premeditated murder for a term of 14 years. I caused the death of a person, and I sincerely regret… I offer my condolences and apologies to the relatives and friends of the deceased. But I had no intention to kill the deceased, which was confirmed by witnesses and video from the scene,” Turenkov says in the video.

According to him, he tried to protect his wife, who called for help.

“The specialized and appellate courts of the city of Uralsk passed an unfair verdict without considering this case objectively and comprehensively,” Turenkov said. “I don’t have millions to solve this issue with money. I have no other choice; the only way I can pay attention to this unfair trial. Today, March 31, I go to extreme measures in protest. I ask that the judge of the specialized inter-district court for criminal cases of the West Kazakhstan region Bakyt Ermakhanov, the court of appeal of the city of Uralsk and the former investigator of the Department of Internal Affairs of Uralsk Lukpan Akhmetov be blamed for my death. Mr. President, I ask for your direct intervention to establish the justice of this matter, even if I am no longer alive.”

After these words, Turenkov asks the audience to take the children away from the screen, exposes his stomach, takes out a knife and cuts himself open.

It should be noted that Vitaly Turenkov, before being convicted for the murder, already had five convictions, including for extortion and hooliganism. In 2021, he was released on parole.

On September 2 last year, Turenkov’s common-law wife Alexandra Shautembaeva went to the store for beer. Turenkov watched her from the balcony. Four men approached the woman near the store and wanted to get to know her. However, Shautembaeva ignored them and went back home. But Turenkov didn’t like the behavior of men. As the investigation established, he, grabbing a knife, ran out of the house to deal with the molesters.

“He punched twice in the face of the man who was trying to talk to his common-law wife. They wanted to calm Turenkov, but he stabbed Marat Utegulov in the heart. He died,” judge Bakyt Ermakhanov said during the trial.

He sentenced Turenkov to 14 years in prison to be served in an institution of the penitentiary system of emergency security. In addition, according to the court decision, the convict also had to pay the wife of the deceased $6.2 thousand as material damage and $24 thousand as moral damage.

Marat Utegulov left four children. His relatives considered the sentence fair.

“My husband was very kind and helpful, he loved children. That evening he wanted to return home by midnight, but he was killed,” his widow Aykorkem Kuanysh said after the trial.

In turn, the common-law wife of Turenkov, on the contrary, stated that the sentence was too harsh.

“Four drunken men pestered me, they threatened me that they would take me to rest with them. I got scared and started calling my husband for help. He didn’t come out to kill them, but only to scare them. But these men held him, they didn’t let him go. They followed him. This is on the recordings of the video camera,” Shautembaeva said.

The lawyer Ruslan Shagataev also disagreed with the verdict.

“My client received almost the maximum term under this article. Turenkov defended the honor and dignity of his civil wife. He was forced to do so,” he explained.

However, judge Bakyt Ermakhanov refuted these arguments.

“The murder was committed intentionally. Evidence of this is the localization of the wound – right in the heart. The woman had already done her shopping and went home. Only then Turenkov went out. He started the conflict. The men didn’t beat him, they didn’t have anything in their hands,” the judge told reporters after the verdict was announced.

It remains to add that, according to the administration of the pre-trial detention center, where Turenkov tried to commit suicide, now his life and health are not in danger.