The military court of the Shymkent garrison has sentenced former border service corporal Azat Medraly. He was found guilty of assisting smugglers in illegally crossing the border.
As reported by Ratel.kz, the incident occurred in July of last year on a section of the state border in the Merki district of Zhambyl region.
According to the investigation, Medraly had previously agreed with an unidentified person to illegally let several vehicles through the border in exchange for a reward of 5 million tenge.
On the night of 22 July, the accused, serving as the senior member of the border patrol, sent two subordinates to patrol the border strip. As the servicemen stated in court, while on their patrol route, they noticed several vehicles from the Kyrgyz Republic moving towards the checkpoint with their headlights off. The border guards immediately reported this to headquarters via radio and hurried back.
When they ran back to the checkpoint, several trucks and cars had already crossed into the territory of Kazakhstan. According to the servicemen, Medraly was sweeping away tyre tracks with a stick.
Additional border patrol units arrived at the scene and began pursuing the violators. As a result, the border guards managed to stop only one truck - a Kamaz - which was carrying 156,550 packs of illegal cigarettes. The total value of the cargo and unpaid excise duties amounted to approximately 170.5 million tenge.
The defendant partially admitted guilt, claiming he did not conspire with anyone but had simply fallen asleep at his post and did not hear the passing vehicles.
The court found Azat Medraly guilty and sentenced him to 6 years in prison in a medium-security colony, with demotion from military rank and a lifetime ban on serving in law enforcement agencies.