The Specialised Inter-District Criminal Court (SIDCC) of the Almaty Region passed a sentence on 2 February 2026 in the case concerning the murder of Barlykhan Baitanov, an appraiser at the pawnshop "AdbiKM". Four convicts received between 3 and 22 years in prison. Among them is Serik Kassymzhomart, to whom a jury attributed the role of the direct perpetrator of the murder and handed down 22 years.
Editorial staff of the FBRC, together with colleagues from infozakon.kz, examined the text of the verdict and the report from an independent psychiatrist-psychologist who examined the convict in the pre-trial detention centre (SIZO) of Taldykorgan.
WHAT THE VERDICT ESTABLISHED
According to the investigation, on 2 November 2024, Serik Kassymzhomart strangled Barlykhan Baitanov with a rope inside a car. The body was taken to the steppe and buried. The robbery of the pawnshop, which was allegedly the primary goal, failed – the perpetrators were scared off by passers-by.
The main motive for the convict's involvement, or perhaps the sole significant piece of evidence of his guilt, was his acquaintance with previously convicted Ghalymzhan Mutayev, who also received 22 years in this case. The exact date and circumstances of their acquaintance are not established in the verdict.
EVIDENCE THAT DOES NOT EXIST
No connection to the victim was established for Serik Kassymzhomart. No investigative experiment was conducted. No footage from CCTV cameras was seized.
One of the prosecution's central evidentiary blocks is data on Serik Kassymzhomart's location based on mobile phone signals. However, instead of official records from the operators, the case file contains a summary table supposedly containing data from Kcell, Tele2 and Beeline in a single file, even though telecommunications operators do not usually produce a unified document. The same table indicates that the defendant was moving at a speed that is physically unattainable in urban conditions.
Furthermore, the verdict records that at the time of the murder, there was a fourth passenger in the car, whose identity was not established by the investigation. He allegedly simply got out shortly before the crime and ‘walked away’.
MUTAYEV'S CONFESSION
The key source for the prosecution is the testimony of Ghalymzhan Mutayev, twice convicted and sentenced to 22 years in this same case. The case materials record his admission of the murder to another accomplice. The name Serik Kassymzhomart is not mentioned in this admission.
The theory that Mutayev might have shifted part of the responsibility onto an acquaintance unknown to and unverifiable by the investigation is a procedural hypothesis that requires refutation. No such refutation is contained in the case materials.
WHAT THE PSYCHIATRIST RECORDED
An independent psychiatrist examined the convict and diagnosed a disorder of adaptive reactions. The expert notes that the clinical picture corresponds to reports of physical and psychological pressure from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. No signs of a tendency towards fantasising or pseudologia were found.
PROCEDURAL VIOLATIONS
Judge Yerzhan Zhanuzakov noted during the hearing that the convict's rights during the initial interrogation were not properly explained. During the defendants' final statements, the state prosecutor was not present in the courtroom. None of the violations received a legal assessment in the verdict.
We believe that such cases deserve attention not because an unjust verdict has necessarily been passed, but because they show that even obvious questions about the evidence do not always become an obstacle to a guilty verdict.
Ultimately, this case is precisely about what the evidentiary basis should be in order to send a person to prison for two decades – and about whether what exists in this case is sufficient to answer that question in the affirmative.
The full article with all the details of this controversial case can be found on the portal infozakon.kz.