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Murder of a banker: the appellate court is reviewing the appeal for parole of Muratkhan Tokmadi

No to lawlessness. Justice will win in Kazakhstan!

Zakon KZ article (https://www.zakon.kz/)

Muratkhan Tokmadi is serving a sentence in the Zarechenskaya general regime colony for the murder of the co-owner and top manager of Bank TuranAlem, Yerzhan Tatishev.

On July 26, 2024, Konayev city judge Maksat Amirkulov granted Muratkhan Tokmadi's petition for parole. He could have been released on August 10, but the lawyer for the injured party filed an appeal, citing the fact that none of his clients knew about the hearing. The convicted person remains in the colony for now.



The decision of the Konaev City Court has begun to be reviewed by the appellate board of the Almaty Regional Court. The trial is being held in an open mode under the chairmanship of Judge Abu Aibek. The injured party is represented by the younger brother of the murdered man, Erkin Tatishev.

"On behalf of my entire family, I can note that the convicted person has never repented of anything. This was the case when he walked around under the guise of an accident and this happened when his guilt was proven. He still does not repent. This is evident from his interviews. Having committed such a malicious crime, he received a lenient sentence. He never even thought about the fact that he left four children without a father. Kazakhstan has lost a bright representative of the banking system, a star of Kazakh business. We want him to simply serve out his entire sentence," said Erkin Tatishev.

During the trial, a petition was filed to include and let Muratkhan Tokmadi be part of the process. However, the court, having heard the parties, refused.

"The defendant's mandatory participation was in the court of first instance, but in the appeal it is not necessary, the main thing is that his representatives are present," said Judge Abu Aibek.

Lawyer Amanzhol Mukhamedyarov said that the injured party learned about Tokmadi's parole from the news, no one notified them about the trial in advance. They did not personally participate in the court, so they were deprived of the opportunity to express their opinion. Therefore, they consider the court's decision illegal and subject to cancellation.

"Tokmadi did not admit his guilt, did not repent, and did not reconcile with the victims. He was convicted of committing a particularly serious crime in the form of murder committed by a group of people, by prior conspiracy, with mercenary motives. That is, Tokmadi committed the murder of a person for mercenary motives. The victim did not forgive the murder of his older brother and is asking for the ruling of the court of first instance to be overturned. We also filed a complaint that his term of detention from October 10, 2017 to January 9, 2018 was considered illegal, that is, these extra 4.5 months were subtracted from the length of the sentence," said Amanzhol Mukhamedyarov.

The injured party also noted that Muratkhan Tokmadi had been obstructing an objective judicial investigation for 14 years, passing off everything that happened as an accident. He influenced witnesses and experts who falsely confirmed his testimony about the possibility of an unprompted shot. Because of which the convicted person remained unpunished for a long time.

"The guilt of the convicted person in committing the contract killing has been fully proven. The presence of a motive, early repayment of a huge debt to the bank, the enrichment of his affiliated companies after 2004. His actual presence at the scene of the murder, his connection with Ablyazov, examinations and witness testimony – all prove his guilt," said lawyer Oleg Chernov.

The hearing was attended by former Director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation Louis Freeh, who specially came to Kazakhstan for the high-profile case. In 2017, he headed a group of American investigators and forensic experts who were involved in the investigation of the crime and proved that the murder of the banker was intentional.



The hearing was adjourned until September 6 at 16:00.

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Banker Yerzhan Tatishev died on December 19, 2004, while hunting near the Otar station. He was chasing predators across the steppe by car. Having caught up with them, he handed the gun to Muratkhan Tokmadi, who was sitting next to him. Then experts concluded that the SUV accidentally ran over a bump and the gun fired unexpectedly. Tatishev died as a result of a gunshot wound.

That same year, Muratkhan Tokmadi received a year in prison for the unintentional murder of Yerzhan Tatishev and was almost immediately released under an amnesty.

However, in 2017, he was taken into custody again and sentenced to three years in a medium-security facility. This time, the court found Tokmadi guilty of extortion and illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or carrying of weapons, ammunition, explosives and explosive devices.

Later, in an interview with one of the TV channels, the prisoner confessed to the murder of Yerzhan Tatishev, stating that Mukhtar Ablyazov ordered the crime. After which the Prosecutor General's Office conducted an investigation into the newly discovered circumstances of the old murder. The 2004 sentence was overturned and the criminal case was retried. As a result, in March 2018, Muratkhan Tokmadi was sentenced to 10.5 years in prison for the murder of Tatishev.

The information that Tokmadi, who was sentenced in 2018 to a long prison term on charges of committing the contract killing of banker Tatishev, could be released early, outraged the relatives of the murdered man.