Border Troop's Suicide: Lawyer of The Accused Believes that The Investigation is Covering up

The lawyer of the contractor accused of driving a young soldier to suicide assures that the investigation is ignoring important evidence and findings from an expert examination.

Six months ago, the body of the 18-year-old conscript, Bekbol Mirash, was found at the Sholdal border post in the Jambyl region. The investigation is still underway, and the case is about to go to court. The lawyer of the accused, Serzhan Praliev, believes that the Military Investigation Department is covering up the real situation.

The suicide of Bekbol Mirash is being investigated by the Taraz Department of the Southern Regional Military Investigation Department. The first explanation for the soldier's suicide was a fight with his girlfriend. The young woman, however, refuted this version.

Journalist Gulmira Abykai published a video in which the soldier's girlfriend is reading aloud his last messages with tears in her eyes:

"I live in fear… I'm afraid of everyone… I wasn't afraid of people before… Rather than live in fear like this, I'd rather die…"

Witnesses in the border department later claimed that the section's leader, contract service sergeant Aibek Nurtaev, allegedly insulted, humiliated and, in the end, beat Private Mirash. The young soldier then hanged himself. Aibek's lawyer, Serzhan Praliev, claims that apart from the testimony of these witnesses, there is no more evidence confirming this.

Although there are the results of several examinations that give rise to a new version, the investigators turn a blind eye to them, the lawyer says.

The Expert Examination

At the request of the defence, three forensic medical examinations were conducted - one in Taraz and two in Almaty. It turned out that foreign male biomaterials were discovered in the deceased conscript's mouth and on his clothes.

"There was a biological examination, the results shocked everyone. Traces of semen were found in the oral cavity, on [Ed. his] underwear, T-shirt, pants. The DNA of my client was not found."

The examination indicated that the DNA belongs not only to the deceased, but also to two or more males. One of them is a fellow serviceman and friend of the deceased. Yesterday I petitioned for the rest of the military unit to undergo an examination. I was turned down. According to investigators, he was allegedly beaten, threatened and hanged, but three examinations point to new facts. Now these persons should be identified,"

said lawyer Serzhan Praliev.

According to the defence, the young soldier's fellow servicemen may have committed sexual acts against him and filmed it on a mobile phone. After that, Bekbol Mirash, unable to withstand the shame and humiliation, may have hung himself. All of these servicemen are witnesses for the prosecution in the case.

"The Military Investigation Department wants to finish this case as soon as possible, they have the terms of detention of the accused until January 24. They need to take the case to court as soon as possible. My client has served in the service for 20 years, he has 4 young children,"

the lawyer notes.

The serviceman, whose biomaterials were found on the clothes of the deceased private, claims that he was left alone in the bathhouse, masturbated, and wiped his hands on the first T-shirt he came across.

"And [Ed. the] pants, [Ed. and the] underwear? Why was DNA found on them? What about the traces of other people? Why does the investigation want to close the case faster? Now that it has become clear that there may be sexual abuse in the Border Service, there is a new version, but it is not being looked into,"

the lawyer says.

The results of the examination and a photo of the phone screenshot with money transfers have not been admitted to the case. The phone belongs to Bekbol's fellow serviceman. It was handed over to the defence by servicemen who were in the unit on the day of the tragedy. The investigation also does not want to question them, said lawyer Serzhan Praliev. The only conscripts who have been witnesses are servicemen and fellow townsmen of the deceased.

In the photo, you can see a money transfer in the amount of 5 thousand KZT with an ambiguous note [Ed. Thanks for the blow job]. Meanwhile, the lawyer does not think that this could be a joke. Traces of biomaterials on Mirash's clothes, in his opinion, are direct evidence.

If you study the document that was distributed in August 2022, the body of the deceased Bekbol Mirash was discovered by his fellow serviceman, i.e. Miras Zholmambetov.

The lawyer believes that the investigators of the Military Investigation Unit's Taraz department and the Prosecutor's office of the Southern region simply do not want to consider this version. Instead, they insist on the abuse of power by Aibek Nurtaev.

Aibek Nurtaev is being charged with several articles of the Criminal Code at once: "Driving to suicide", "Abuse of official authority" and "Extortion".

The last charge is due to the testimony of the deceased's relatives. They said that shortly before his death, Bekbol often called and wrote messages with requests to send different amounts of money: from five to 28 thousand KZT.

Orda.kz's editorial board has sent an official request to the authorities.

Tragedies During Service

News about the death of an 18-year-old conscript emerged on August 20, 2022. His body was found the day before in the stable hanging from a soldier's trouser belt. The conscript soldier Bekbol Mirash was called up for service from the Atyrau region and served for only six months. The relatives of the young man claim that he could not have committed suicide. He was the middle of three children in the family.

This was not the only death among servicemen last year. The reasons were often fatal negligence, beatings by fellow servicemen and suicide.

Original Author: Dilara Yahyarova

DISCLAIMER: This piece is a translation. The text has been modified, the content is the same. For accuracy please refer to the original article in Russian.