Statement by Yeldos Kilimzhanov, Deputy Head of 1st Service of the General Prosecutor's Office, at the Central Communications Service’s online media briefing on the situation in the country, 25 January 2022
Dear citizens!
The Prosecutor General's Office continues its work on protecting the constitutional rights of citizens and establishing the details of crimes committed during the January events.
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In line with the request of the President of the country to mitigate punishment in the absence of aggravating circumstances, the following work has been carried out.
As of today, the courts have reviewed 9,257 administrative cases related to the January events.
Almost half of the considered cases did not receive any punishment - 4,584 persons have been issued a warning by the court.
At present, at the request of the state prosecutors, 1149 persons have been released from custody, 577 fines have been replaced with a warning, 393 administrative cases have been dismissed due to the absence of any crime.
Thus, I would like to note that 63 persons out of 3314 people, who were sentenced to administrative detention, are still under administrative arrest.
A further 13 applications by prosecutors for mitigation of administrative punishment are pending before the courts.
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As of 25 January, the investigative teams had 2,044 criminal cases pending.
In these cases, 898 suspects have been detained.
Of these, 802 were taken into custody with court authorisation, 50 persons were placed under home arrest, 21 persons were released on bail, 12 persons were requested to give a written pledge not to leave the city, and the level of punishment for 13 persons is still under consideration.
As previously noted, the state prosecutor’s office is ensuring legality during the investigation into the tragic events.
The procuratorial authorities have already received 109 complaints related to unauthorized methods of investigation and violations of citizens' rights during the investigation by the law enforcement agencies.
In 11 of the complaints, the prosecutors themselves have opened pretrial investigations into abuse of authority and official powers, and 10 criminal cases have been registered by the criminal prosecution authorities on the instructions of the prosecutors.
To date, 21 cases are pending, of which 20 are being investigated by anti-corruption officers and 1 by special prosecutors.
43 complaints are being investigated and 22 have not been substantiated.
It should be noted that rapid response teams of law enforcement officers have been established in all regions of the country.
The contact details of the prosecutors on duty are available on the departmental website "prokuror.gov.kz".
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The prosecutorial agencies are also working to determine the circumstances of civilian deaths.
A full investigation of the causes of death is under way in each case. In this regard, the prosecutors have already reevaluated three criminal cases as a homicide.
At the same time, I would like to note that the data given is not final and there is a lot of work that remains to be done.
In addition to investigating criminal cases, law enforcement agencies are also locating and seizing weapons that were stolen during the unrest.
As highlighted by the representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, citizens are provided with the opportunity to voluntarily surrender weapons.
The General Prosecutor's Office guarantees exemption from criminal responsibility for individuals who voluntarily hand over illegally held firearms, ammunition and explosives, as long as they did not commit another criminal activity.
I would like to stress that instances where a person is arrested with a weapon are not recognized by the law enforcement agencies as voluntary surrender of firearms.
The internal affairs agencies have been instructed to intensify investigative and preventive measures to seize firearms from illegal circulation.
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Local prosecutors ensure the observance of constitutional rights of those involved in the process and are taking measures to ensure an objective investigation of the criminal cases.
Thank you for your attention!
