A court hearing was due to take place today in the Taskala District Court of the West Kazakhstan Region regarding the case of the former chairman of the Uralsk City Court, Ruslan Zhumagulov, and lawyer Nurzhigit Fazylgaliyev. Both are accused of fraud (Article 190 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan), and Fazylgaliyev is additionally charged with bribery (Article 367 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan).
According to Ratel.kz, the process is not taking place in the Uralsk City Court, where Zhumagulov previously worked, but in the district court, presided over by Judge Aliya Teberikova — to avoid any possible conflict of interest.
The hearing was scheduled to conclude a procedural agreement on a guilty plea. However, the session was postponed until 15 May due to the non-appearance of Fazylgaliyev's lawyers. Zhumagulov refused to comment to the media, noting only that journalists had previously stated an incorrect amount for the alleged bribe — not 1.5 million tenge, but 200,000 tenge.
It has become known that Zhumagulov was caught red-handed in November 2024 while receiving a bribe. It was noted that the bribe was intended to secure a favourable court decision regarding a convicted person.
"Most likely, we are talking about the practice of parole from places of imprisonment or the replacement of a stricter punishment with a less severe one. All measures for the judge's arrest were carried out by the central apparatus of the National Security Committee," the report says.
Together with Zhumagulov and Fazylgaliyev, another lawyer, Adil Akmoldin, was also mentioned during the arrest. However, he did not make it to court: his procedural status was changed to that of a witness. Former judge Zhumagulov spent 10 days in a pre-trial detention centre after his arrest, after which he was placed under house arrest.
It is noted that lawyer Nurzhigit Fazylgaliyev had a previous criminal record. While serving in the criminal police department of the West Kazakhstan Region Department of Internal Affairs, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but after three and a half years he achieved full rehabilitation through the courts, proving that he had been framed.