Muratkhan Tokmadi Denied Sentence Reduction Once Again

The Alatau City Court has denied a request to reduce the prison term of Muratkhan Tokmadi, who was convicted over the contract killing of banker Yerzhan Tatishev. This marks his second unsuccessful attempt to shorten his sentence since the beginning of the year, Orda.kz reports.

Tokmadi had previously submitted a similar motion, but the injured party argued that the matter had already been resolved and there were no legal grounds to reconsider it.

This is not the first time courts have reviewed Tokmadi’s appeals, in which he cites the article of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan concerning retroactive application. That article allows for the possibility of sentence reduction if the law changes.

In 2023, the Jezqazgan City Court initially granted such a motion, but the decision was later overturned. In September 2024, the judicial panel of the Ulytau Region determined that both the sentence recalculation and the change in detention conditions were made in error.

The affected party’s lawyer, Amanzhol Mukhamedyarov, emphasized that the panel’s resolution from September 11, 2024, remains in force across Kazakhstan and has neither been canceled nor revised.

This issue has already been considered and cannot be raised again,he stated. 

Lawyer Oleg Chernov also referred to a regulatory resolution from the Supreme Court, which stipulates that if a sentence has already been reviewed in the execution phase, a second application of Article 6 of the Criminal Code is not permitted.

Entrepreneur Muratkhan Tokmadi was sentenced to 10.5 years in prison in 2018 for the contract killing of prominent Kazakh businessman and BTA Bank Chair Yerzhan Tatishev, a crime supposedly ordered by Mukhtar Ablyazov.

Tokmadi has maintained his innocence, claiming he confessed under torture by KNB officers.

Original Author: Kumysai Sarbasova