Has A Court Ruling Opened The Possibility of Parole for Vladislav Chelakh?

Kazakhstan Constitutional Court Removes Parole Ban for Certain Life Sentences

The Constitutional Court has declared unconstitutional a Criminal Code provision that prohibited parole for individuals whose death sentences were replaced by imprisonment, Orda.kz reports.

The court stated that the death penalty is not applied in Kazakhstan and that all references to it have already been removed from criminal and penal legislation.

Keeping a prohibition in the code tied to a non-existent type of punishment was found to be contrary to the Constitution. In line with this decision, the provision — subclause 1) of part 8 of article 72 of the Criminal Code — was removed under the law of July 16, 2025, amending criminal legislation.

As a result, there is no longer a special ban on parole for this category of convicted persons. Their applications for early release are now considered on the same basis as other incarcerated persons, under the rules of Article 72.

Since Kazakhstan’s independence, 73 people have received the death penalty as a punishment. Among the most well-known are Vladislav Chelakh and Ruslan Kulekbayev.

In 2012, 15 people — 14 servicemen and a ranger — were killed at the Arkankergen border post. For this crime, 19-year-old private Vladislav Chelakh was sentenced to life imprisonment. He initially confessed to the killings but later retracted his testimony, saying the outpost had been attacked by unknown individuals.

Debate over Chelakh’s guilt continues, with some viewing him as a victim and others as a cold-blooded killer. In December 2022, he sent a letter to the president promising to reveal “the whole truth,” but he has refused to speak with journalists or human rights activists.

Almaty shooter Ruslan Kulekbayev is held in the Black Berkut facility.

On July 18, 2016, he carried out an armed attack on the Almaly District Department of Internal Affairs, the National Security Committee Department, and the Tax Department, killing nine people and wounding four in under an hour. 

His actions were classified as a terrorist act, and he was sentenced to death. Due to the moratorium, the sentence was replaced with life imprisonment.

Original Author: Artyom Volkov