Aktobe is holding court arguments in the case of the murder of 17-year-old Alikhan Zhanibekov, who died in a mass brawl in Shalkar. The state prosecutor has asked for the defendant to be sentenced to eight years in prison, infohub.kz reports.
The mass brawl between groups of young men took place in March 2026. Alikhan Zhanibekov suffered a stab wound from which he died. According to the prosecution, the defendant planned the crime in advance and traveled to Shalkar from Uralsk specifically for that purpose. The defendant himself denies guilt, claiming he took the knife solely for self-defense.
The mother of the deceased, Rauan Niyazmaganbetova, asked the court to sentence the defendant to 20 years in prison and to compensate the family for material and moral damages.
"My child has been gone for exactly 188 days now. Over these 188 days we have endured so much pain; there has not been a single day when we did not cry," she said during the hearing.
State prosecutor Usman Orynbasaruly asked that the defendant be found guilty under points 9 and 14 of part 2 of article 99 of the Criminal Code and sentenced to eight years in prison, to be served in a medium-security facility. No verdict has yet been handed down in the case.
Kursiv.kz previously reported on the teenager's death after the brawl and the launch of a criminal investigation.