Those convicted of embezzling 35 million tenge, including kindergarten heads and a company director, have filed an appeal against the first-instance court's decision. The judicial panel softened the sentence for some of them.
Recall, in May it became known that heads of capital city kindergartens submitted applications for food supplies which they did not purchase, and also drew up fictitious documents. The money embezzled in this way was subsequently transferred to the account of the company director.
As a result, the first-instance court sentenced the kindergarten heads to 3 years' imprisonment. The company director was sentenced to 4 years' imprisonment.
Not agreeing with the verdict, the convicted individuals and their lawyers challenged it through the appeals process and asked for a sentence of restriction of liberty.
The appeals instance agreed to replace the actual prison term for the kindergarten heads with a restriction of liberty, taking into account a number of mitigating circumstances (having young children, no previous criminal record, positive references, confessions and full voluntary compensation for damages, etc.)
Meanwhile, the sentence for the company director was left unchanged, because together with all the kindergarten heads he committed several crimes. Furthermore, the company director had previously been convicted of similar offences. The court found no grounds for mitigating his punishment. It is noted that the judicial acts have entered into legal force.