CCPR/C/132/D/2675/2015
subjected to criminal procedures are treated humanely; and (e) prevent similar violations
from occurring in the future.
State party’s observations on the merits
4.1
On 18 May 2016, the State party submitted its observations on the merits of the
communication.
4.2
The Attorney-General’s Office referred to the author’s sentence of 10 years of
imprisonment for the murder of his mother. The author was also sentenced to a fine of
181,000 tenge,3 which he had to pay to the victim as compensation for material damages, and
a fine of 18,100 tenge,4 which he had to pay to the State.
4.3
The fines were imposed by the appeals chamber of the Mangystau Regional Court on
27 November 2013 when reviewing the first instance judgment; the Court upheld the rest of
the criminal sentence. On 12 February 2014, the cassation chamber of the Mangystau
Regional Court dismissed the cassation appeals submitted by the author. On 9 July 2014, the
Supervisory Review Panel for Criminal Affairs of the Supreme Court refused the author’s
application for supervisory review.
4.4
Regarding the facts, the State party submits that the author had been in a relationship
with his girlfriend since April 2011 and that they wished to get married. The author’s mother,
however, was against the marriage. The author’s dispute with his mother served as the motive
for the author’s crime. On 1 May 2013, between 11 a.m. and noon, the author equipped
himself with a hammer and went to visit his mother at work, at a wastewater treatment plant
owned by Kazatomprom. They argued again about the planned wedding. The author started
hitting his mother with the hammer on the head, with the intention of killing her. When she
fell to the ground, he stabbed her with a knife in the neck, chest, legs and arms. As a result
of those injuries, she passed away at the site.
4.5
The author fled the scene, throwing the hammer into the reeds and the victim’s bag
and the knife into a drainage canal. The author’s guilt was established through witness
statements, forensic and material evidence, analyses of his mobile telephone calls, legal
expertise and other means. On 2 May 2013, a piece of white tulle and a hammer with dark
brown spots and hair fragments on them were found at the crime scene and in the reeds.
According to forensic biology experts, the blood stains and hair belonged to the victim and
the sweat on the hammer belonged to the author. According to the forensic medical experts,
the victim’s death was caused by bruises to and crushing of the brain, in conjunction with
repeated fractures of the cranial vault and severe damage to several organs as a consequence
of numerous stabbings. On 13 May 2013, the author was placed in pretrial detention in the
city of Aktau. While in custody, the author wrote a confession admitting to the crime and
indicating where he had thrown the bag and the knife used in the murder. During the crime
scene visit on 14 May 2013, held in the presence of the author, a black bag was found and
seized from the drainage canal. The bag contained the victim’s belongings, as identified by
her spouse and colleagues. A knife, the handle of which was wrapped in blue tape, was also
found.
4.6
One witness, who was a colleague of the author, recognized the hammer used in the
murder as belonging to a certain garage. Two other witnesses stated that, on 1 May 2013,
when they were driving back from the seaside, they saw the author next to the drainage canal,
walking towards the city, and offered to take him there; they confirmed their initial
testimonies during the cross-examination with the author. Three other witnesses submitted,
during the court trial, that the author had recounted to them, while in custody, the
circumstances of the murder of his mother.
4.7
The State party requests that the author’s allegations that his rights were violated while
the courts were establishing his criminal liability be dismissed as unfounded. The author’s
objections that the findings presented by the forensic medical expert to the court, according
to which the hammer was the murder weapon, do not correspond to reality. The expert did
3
4
Approximately 362 euros.
Approximately 36 euros.
3