Expat, detained in Uralsk, worked earlier in Atyrau (+video)

By Zeena Urynbassarova

Baruch Peter. Photo: Uralskaya NedelyaYesterday, Feb 7, Peter Baruch, the British citizen, charged with corruption of minors, was taken into custody as per the West Kazakhstan regional court ruling.

This was reported by the West Kazakhstan Prosecutor’s Office, that earlier filed a notice of opposition to the court and also wants to get a sanction for his arrest.

“The regional court reviewed the Uralsk city prosecutor’s notice of opposition and the prosecutor’s protest was satisfied,”- said Niyazbek Dildabekov, the judge of the board of appeals on criminal cases of the regional court. 

Soon after the court’s ruling Peter Baruch was taken into custody for three days.

The court session was held behind closed doors and the journalists were not allowed to enter the venue because the defendant Baruch Peter was against it.

Earlier, on Feb 5, the Uralsk city court had reviewed the complaint filed by Baruch Peter’s lawyer Khamit Khodzhanazarov and ruled illegal the evidences of guilt of the British citizen seized by police officers.

Khamit Khodzhanazarov appealed to court with a request to close the case against his client and to rule as illegal the actions of policemen in Baruch’s hotel room where pornographic materials were found. The lawyer tried to justify that his defendant was not provided with the translator and his rights were not properly explained to him.

Yet, the mothers of victim girls said that their daughters communicated with the expat without translators, since he apparently speaks good Russian. 

The press office of the Department of Internal Affairs of West Kazakhstan Oblast reported that “the victim girls' parents have filed 6 complaints (3 - from Uralsk and another 3 - from Atyrau, where the expat worked earlier). 

Peter Baruch’s ex-colleague from Atyrau recalls:

- “He was seconded to the project by Shell company. He worked in the Blue Roof and Agip main office building since 2010. He had a long-term assignment. I would never suspect that Peter Baruch would be involved in such shameful activities. He looked very professional in his job and in actual fact he was one of the top managers within the Kashagan start-up team,- says one of his ex-colleagues who wanted to remain anonymous.  

To recall, the 38 y.o British citizen was suspected of filming nude 12-13 y.o girls in a Chagala hotel room in Uralsk city, where he had been living for quite a while ( it was reported earlier that the expat made videos of nude minors also in Atyrau). According to information released by West Kazakhstan Internal Affairs Deprtment, he paid 10-15 thousand tenge to the girls for taking their pictures. The police doesn't exclude the possibility that later he posted pornographic pictures in the Internet.

The suspect worked at that time in ZhaikMunai oil company.

According to the police officers, when Baruch saw the police from his hotel room window, he tried to destroy the evidence by pouring vodka (not water as it was previously reported) all over the notebook, memory sticks, the hard drive and the video camera and put them into the microwave to burn them. Forensic experts were able to recover the pornographic files from the devices. 

Peter Baruch is charged with two articles of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan: Article 273 -  ”Production and distribution of child pornography and engaging minors in pornographic events” and article 124, part 3  - “Corruption of minors repeatedly perpetrated”. According to the last article he may face up to 9 years in jail.