A preliminary hearing is taking place in the Pavlodar Specialised Inter-District Court regarding an extortion case in which the first deputy governor of the region, Serik Batyrguzhinov, is the victim.
According to the media, the accused is a female resident of Pavlodar, born in 1985. She has been charged under Article 194, Part 4 'Extortion on an especially large scale'. The penalty for this article provides for imprisonment for a term of 7 to 15 years.
"According to the information we have, the police department of Pavlodar region, based on a statement from the individual Serik Batyrguzhinov, opened a criminal case regarding an extortion incident. The victim is Serik Batyrguzhinov. An investigation has currently been conducted; the facts presented by the accused party in her defence were checked and were not confirmed.", the press service of the regional akimat reported.
At the same time, public figure Yermek Narymbai reported other information on his Facebook page. According to him, the suspect is a mother of 2 children, her name is Aigul. In Astana, she was on the preferential housing waiting list as the mother of a disabled person.
The public figure stated that the deputy governor of Pavlodar region, Serik Batyrguzhinov, allegedly invited the woman to a meeting in his office, where he raped her. Yermek Narymbai claims that afterwards the official tried to persuade her not to report it to the police and promised to help with an apartment. Aigul agreed.
Some time later, her child died. The woman was removed from the waiting list and was offered the chance to re-join at the end on general terms. According to the public figure, she reminded the deputy governor of her situation. After which she became the subject of the extortion case.
In turn, while answering questions from journalists, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Yerzhan Sadenov, noted that the rape complaint was investigated, but the facts were not confirmed.
Furthermore, the media report that the deputy governor did not attend the preliminary hearing on 27 March. His representative stated that Batyrguzhinov was feeling unwell, and submitted a request for his participation online throughout the entire court proceedings. The representative also asked for the process to be closed. However, the judge rejected her request.
In turn, the defendant exercised her right to a trial by jury. The selection of candidates was scheduled for 10 April.
"As for my statement about the rape, I am not retracting it. But the police closed the case without properly examining it.", the defendant told journalists.
The editorial team of FBRK will continue to monitor developments regarding this difficult case.