An appeals court has toughened the sentences of two defendants in a case involving an underground drug laboratory in Almaty after the Prosecutor General's Office intervened, the website infohub.kz reports.
According to the supervisory authority, two Almaty residents set up an underground laboratory to produce analogues of psychotropic substances. The premises contained specialized equipment, scales, packaging and instructions, and the total mass of the substance produced was almost 3.9 kg. The crime was committed by a group of people acting in prior conspiracy with the aim of subsequent distribution.
Both participants were found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment: one received 8 years, the other 7 years 6 months.
"The sentence was set under the sanction of the new version of Article 297, which no longer covers manufacture, since in early 2025 the manufacture of drugs and their analogues for the purpose of distribution was separated into a standalone Article 297-1. At the same time, if a new law does not improve the position of the convicted person and does not change the sentence in substance, it is not applied, and the person is tried under the law in force at the time the crime was committed. In this regard, the sentence should have been imposed under Article 297 of the Criminal Code in the version in force at the time of the crime, which provided for liability for the manufacture of analogues of psychotropic substances in the form of imprisonment for a term of 10 to 15 years," prosecutors explained.
Accordingly, following a protest by the Prosecutor General's Office, the case was reviewed in cassation. As a result, the cassation court amended the judicial acts and increased the sentences: one defendant was sentenced to 10 years 6 months in prison, the second to 10 years.