Ex-Governor’s Case. Appeals hearings will start on February 2

By Zulfiya Bainekeeva

The appeal board of Atyrau regional court will start the hearings of all appeals submitted by the defendants that do not accept the court verdict on the criminal case of “Bergei Ryskaliev's organized criminal group”on February 2.

Complaints to court verdicts, both for terms and for application of measures for confiscation of property –have been submitted by the majority of the defendants that are now behind the bar.

The lawyers are asking to declare their defendants not guilty on some of the imputed articles or to reclassify the charges for lessergravity, for example, to reclassify “abuse of power” to “negligence” that would allow to decrease punishment terms. They also appealed against the sums of compensations to the persons recognized as victims of this criminal case.

Let us remind that the sentence hasn’t entered into force yet. According to the lawyers, the sentence enters into force from the moment of declaration of the resolution of appeal board. By different estimates, appeal hearings of this multi-volume case can take from several weeks up to several months.