A criminal case is being heard in the Almaty Military Court regarding the injury of a resident of Usharal, Alakol district, Zhetysu region — Assem Karsybayeva. In June 2024, the woman sustained a gunshot wound near a military training ground where shooting exercises were being conducted.
According to Ratel.kz, in the dock is a corporal of the medical service, a contract soldier of military unit 2484 of the Border Service of the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Yerlan Berdybek. He has been charged under Article 453, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan — "Negligent attitude to duty resulting in grave consequences".
According to the investigation, Yerlan Berdybek, who was acting as a lookout at the post, failed to notice the presence of unauthorised persons in the danger zone of the shooting range. The victim claims that she and her husband were relaxing by the river, near which the training ground is located. The distance to the training ground was 1.7 km. The woman stated that the area had no fencing or warning signs, and they did not hear any gunfire at the time of their arrival.
"We arrived at the river closer to 12 noon; we presume that the military had shooting exercises in the morning, then there was a break, and after the break they started shooting again. We had been relaxing for literally 10–20 minutes when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my shoulder, as if I had been electrocuted, and I fell. My husband took me to hospital; I spent 11 days in intensive care," says Assem Karsybayeva.
It has become known that the bullet from a Kalashnikov rifle passed through her shoulder, damaging her spine, ribs, spinal cord, and lungs. The woman underwent a complex operation, the funds for which (1.5 million tenge) were collected by military personnel. As Karsybayeva noted, the assistance was of a private nature and was not an official payment from the Ministry of Defence.
As a result of the injuries, the victim was classified as having a Group II disability and is now forced to wear a supportive corset. She is raising three children and faces problems due to loss of ability to work.
At the same time, Karsybayeva insists that not only the corporal should be held accountable.
"The bullet was fired by a conscript soldier. I disagree that only the defendant is guilty, because he is just an ordinary corporal, whereas an officer should have been overseeing the shooting range. There was not a single officer at the training ground that day. None of the senior military leadership of the unit has apologised to us for what happened. I will fight to have the senior leadership of the military unit held accountable. No one has familiarised us with the materials of the criminal case; my rights were violated during the investigation," says Assem Karsybayeva.
Military prosecutor Askar Isayev has requested 2.5 years' imprisonment for Yerlan Berdybek, stating that his guilt has been fully proven. However, during the court arguments, journalists were asked to leave the courtroom, citing the presence of information constituting a military secret.
The defendant's lawyers and the defendant himself are demanding that the criminal case be dropped, seeking an acquittal. The defence insists that officials should be held responsible for the incident.
According to the lawyer, the officer corps should have been controlling the shooting, but instead, two soldiers stationed in a trench without means of communication were appointed as lookouts. One of them admitted in court that at the time he had no credit on his mobile phone, through which he was supposed to relay commands.
Furthermore, the defence points out that Berdybek himself is not an official and therefore cannot be the subject of the crime stipulated in Article 453 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
After the incident, the victim's relatives inspected the area around the training ground. According to them, there is a quarry nearby where people work, as well as pastures — meaning a potential risk to the civilian population remains.