Kazakhstan's Cassation Court has released a man who got behind the wheel of someone else's car in 2024, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove direct intent, as reported by infohub.kz.
According to the court's press service, on October 23, 2024, R. took advantage of the driver briefly leaving the Hyundai Elantra, got in, and drove off, later colliding with two other vehicles.
The trial court convicted R. of car theft without intent to steal, causing significant damage, under Part 3 of Article 200 of the Criminal Code, sentencing him to 5 years in prison. The appellate court upheld the verdict.
In his cassation appeal, the convict asked to overturn the verdict and the appellate ruling.
The Cassation Court found that the prosecution failed to prove one element of Article 200: direct intent to unlawfully take the car. According to case files, R. did not take the car for a ride; he was in the Hyundai Elantra and moved to the driver's seat at the request of another driver to reposition the car to clear the way for another vehicle. These consistent explanations were not refuted by evidence.
It was noted that there is no video of the incident, no witnesses to the car's movement were identified, and the accident diagram does not show the distance moved or the collision site.
Additionally, lower courts did not determine the exact amount of damage, citing two different sums in their rulings, which also hindered proper legal assessment. Therefore, given the lack of evidence of direct intent to steal the car and the exhausted possibility to fill this gap, the Cassation Court overturned the previous rulings, terminated the criminal case for lack of a criminal offense, and ordered R.'s immediate release.