28 October 2026 the Burabay District Court of Akmola Region found Almaz Madiyev guilty of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm to Assem Shabelskaya, which negligently resulted in her death.
The court sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment, exactly as much as the state prosecution had requested. The victim's side had sought qualification as murder, the defence - as causing death by negligence, but the judge left the article under which the case had come to court.
WHAT THE COURT DECIDED
Almaz Madiyev was found guilty under Part 3 of Article 106 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (“Intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm resulting in death by negligence”). He will serve his sentence in a medium-security facility.
The term is calculated from 9 June 2026; time in custody before the verdict enters into force will be counted at one day for one and a half. The court partially granted the claim of the deceased's sister, Bakhyt Suyundikova. Madiyev will be ordered to pay 12 million tenge in compensation for moral harm instead of the claimed 50 million, 1,049,025 tenge in material damage and 850,000 tenge in legal representation costs.
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE NIGHT OF 9 JUNE
Recall that Assem Shabelskaya died in the hospital in Shchuchinsk on the night of 8 to 9 June 2026 from a double rupture of the liver after a meeting with Almaz Madiyev, with whom she had been in a relationship for about a year and a half. According to Madiyev himself in court, during an argument over a phone he struck Assem five times: twice to the head and three times to the body.
He told the medics that she had fallen and hit her head on a radiator. The state prosecution in its closing arguments stated that the defendant had concealed the blows to the abdomen from the doctors and thereby deprived them of important information.
HOW THE DEFENDANT DEFENDED HIMSELF
Throughout the trial, Madiyev admitted that he had struck blows but denied intent to cause grievous harm. He never pleaded guilty under Part 3 of Article 106 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The defence asked for the case to be reclassified under Part 1 of Article 104 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (“Causing death by negligence”). The victim's lawyer, by contrast, insisted on point 3 of Part 2 of Article 99 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan - murder of a person who, by reason of their condition, could not offer resistance.
In his final statement, Madiyev said:
“We both loved each other and in a fit of jealousy we burned each other.”
And then addressed the judge:
“I ask you not to deprive me of my youth.”
WHAT NEXT
The verdict has not entered into legal force. The parties may appeal it through the appellate procedure.
FBRK has been following this case since June. In the piece from 1 July we reported on our own investigation in Shchuchinsk, and on 7 September - on the first hearing, at which the defendant did not plead guilty.
What the medics and witnesses said can be read in the FBRK piece and watched in our special edition on YouTube, and a reconstruction of the defendant's testimony is available at the link.
