Former Police Major Sentenced to Eight Years in Petropavlovsk

In Petropavlovsk, a court has concluded the case against the former deputy head of the Organized Crime Control Department, Yerbolat Kaptayev. The police major will spend eight years in prison, Orda.kz reports.

Yerbolat Kaptayev held a senior position in the Organized Crime Department. He was detained by KNB officers late last year. Initially, the major was suspected of repeatedly accepting bribes and protecting organized crime. The North Kazakhstan Region Police Department reported at the time that the officer had been fired two months earlier.

As a result, a case was opened against the police officer under Part 3 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, “Repeated bribe-taking by a law enforcement officer.”

According to investigators, Yerbolat Kaptayev developed a friendly relationship with repeat offender Ruslan Nagumanov. He kept him informed of upcoming searches, obtained the phone numbers and locations of people he wanted, and helped him avoid criminal liability for his latest offenses.

For this, according to the prosecution, Nagumanov gave Kaptayev gadgets, rented him a car, and paid his bills at the cafe.

During the trial, the defendant's lawyer, Nurum Kazbekov, argued that key evidence of his innocence was classified as official secrets. He argued that if some of the proceedings had been held behind closed doors, many circumstances could have been brought to light. The court, however, denied this right.

The defense also questioned the witnesses' testimony. Many of them had previous convictions and had served time in prison. Among them was Ruslan Nagumanov. It was his words that formed the basis for the charges against the major.

The defendant himself insisted that his contacts with Nagumanov were part of the Organized Crime Control Department's operational work. He claimed he used them exclusively to solve serious crimes and locate dangerous criminals. The case, he claimed, contains official inquiries and correspondence confirming the official nature of these communications.

However, the court did not allow him to give a full testimony.

The defense also pointed to the investigation's selective nature. Although Nagumanov claimed that other people also received money, the criminal cases against them were dropped.

The lawyer emphasized that Kaptayev served the system through dozens of solved cases, but now he finds himself in the dock because of the testimony of a man he himself had been investigating.

Meanwhile, Nagumanov's sentence for fraud and hooliganism has already come into force. He will spend the next seven years in prison. His lawyer believes his testimony against the police officer was a way to boost his own standing in the criminal underworld.

The prosecutor requested a nine-year prison sentence for the former organized crime fighter. The defendant, his defense attorneys, and his family categorically opposed the charges.

On September 19, Judge Elena Aushakimova concluded the proceedings in the high-profile case and issued her ruling.

Find Kaptayev guilty and sentence him to eight years' imprisonment. Strip him of his rank of police major and confiscate the bribe of 670,000 tenge. The court finds that the transfer of the phone was not part of his operational duties. Moreover, the court finds that Kaptayev's actions, namely, providing information and services to Nagumanov, constituted a gross violation of his official duties and were contrary to his public service. Furthermore, Kaptayev's guilt in the incident of providing the car is confirmed by witness testimony, as well as by the submitted transcripts of the conversation, correspondence between Katayev and Nagumanov, and covert investigative actions conducted in the pre-trial detention facility by National Security Committee officers,
 judge of Petropavlovsk city court, Elena Aushakimova, read.

Yerbolat Kaptayev listened to the verdict calmly. Kaptayev is 36 years old, married, and has two young children. This was a mitigating circumstance. He had worked in the police for 12 years. 

Violating his oath was an aggravating circumstance.

Original Author: Kristina Yusicheva