Kazakhstan National Security Officers Convicted of Extorting Bribe from Foreigner

Two operational officers from the Border Service Department of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee (KNB) were brought to trial after being detained by their own colleagues. They received lengthy prison sentences, reports infohub.kz.

According to the prosecution, the investigative unit of the Border Service Department for the West Kazakhstan Region was handling a criminal case against an Azerbaijani citizen for deliberate illegal border crossing. An investigator assigned an operational officer from the counterintelligence and intelligence activities division of the Border Service Department to identify individuals who had assisted the foreigner.

During his work, the officer located two acquaintances of the Azerbaijani citizen and questioned them as witnesses. They said they had visited the border village of Zhaksybay in the West Kazakhstan Region together with the suspect. One witness was a Kazakh citizen, the other an Azerbaijani citizen.

The operational officer conceived a plan to intimidate the foreigner with administrative expulsion for violating the state border regime, or to resolve the matter for money. He told a colleague from the same division about his plan, and the colleague agreed to join the crime.

At an informal meeting, the officer told the foreigner that he faced expulsion from Kazakhstan, but the matter could be resolved for one million tenge; the money was supposedly intended for a certain "superior." The foreigner said he was willing to pay a bribe to avoid administrative liability. The officer's colleague provided bank details of Russian banks, and the foreigner transferred part of the sum — 30,000 Russian rubles — to one of them.

Eventually, KNB officers detained both suspects and opened a criminal case under the articles of "Fraud" and "Incitement to Bribery." The trial took place at the military court of the Aktobe garrison. The defendants pleaded not guilty.

The verdict was recently announced. The main defendant was sentenced to 8 years in prison, his colleague to 7 years. Both were permanently banned from government service. One of the defendants reacted violently to the verdict and refused to hear the court's explanations. Both stated they did not commit what they were accused of. The verdict has not yet entered into legal force.