Former Atyrau Refinery General Director Sentence Reviewed: 7 Million Tenge Fine Added

The appeals court has modified the sentence of Murat Dosmuratov, former General Director of the Atyrau Oil Refinery, adding a fine of nearly seven million tenge to his existing penalties, reports Orda.kz.

While a lower court found Dosmuratov guilty of negligence last November, it initially released him from punishment, citing an expired statute of limitations.

However, the appellate panel came to the conclusion that the statute of limitations for this case had not expired, therefore, it changed the verdict of the court of first instance, imposing a fine on the defendant in the amount of 6.9 million tenge (2,000 MCI for 2023). The rest of the verdict was left unchanged, reported the Atyrau regional court.

Dosmuratov was convicted under Part 2 of Article 371 of Kazakhstan's Criminal Code for improper performance of authority. The original abuse of power charges were reduced to negligence during the trial.

Prosecutors alleged that Dosmuratov failed to follow legal requirements and the company charter regarding operational decisions. 

Instead of pursuing warranty repairs for a heat exchanger, he initiated a separate tender, allocating about two billion tenge for repairs — a sum he must now repay as damages.

Notably, Dosmuratov only became general director in July 2022, roughly three months after the equipment failure and a month following the decision to purchase the heat exchanger.

Plant employees have pointed out that delaying repairs would have resulted in far more significant losses.

Original Author: Daniel Arturov