A military court will continue behind closed doors a trial for the murder of two Almaty residents during Qandy Qantar
The Almaty Military Court said on January 16 that the trial regarding the murder of Yerlan Zhagiparov and Auez Kapsalanov will continue behind closed doors. The decision, reportedly made at the request of an expert witness, has drawn sharp criticism from Saule Kobzhanova, the lawyer representing Zhagiparov’s family, who called the move “groundless.”
Zhagiparov, an amateur archeologist from Almaty, and Kapsalanov, a resident of Baiserke, a village near Almaty , were killed in January 2022 at the height of Qandy Qantar (Kazakh for ‘Bloody January’), the violent repression of urban protests that resulted in at least 238 killed.
Aitchan Aubakirov, a 42-year-old army officer, is on trial for abuse of power. Until February last year, the case was classified as a murder trial.
According to court testimonies, they had been detained on January 6 and beaten. A coalition of human rights organizations said in 2023 that torture was “pervasive” during that time. After being released, they attempted to flee and they were shot in the back. Kapsalanov’s body was found at the morgue on January 10, Zhagiparov’s on January 12.
The trial about their case was only started in December 2024, almost three years after the events. Just weeks since the first testimonies were heard, the trial will now be held behind closed doors. Local residents and human rights defenders have criticized the secrecy behind Qandy Qantar-related trials, saying this could further hinder an impartial reconstruction of the events.
On January 7, 2022, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said he had given the order to shoot without warning, so that law enforcement and the army could quash the protest. Crucially, however, he did not specify just when he had sent out the order, meaning that innocent passers-by could have been caught in the crossfire without a proper warning.
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