Alikhan Zhanibek, 17, was at a gathering of young people from two districts of Shalkar when he died from a knife wound to the chest. A court sentenced a first-year student from Uralsk to nine years in prison for his murder, infohub.kz reports.
According to investigators, five days before Alikhan's death, teenagers from the "Mayak" and "Rabochy" districts had a fight. The youths from "Mayak" were injured. A student at the West Kazakhstan Agrarian Technical University, who identified with their group, learned about this. On March 18, he traveled from Uralsk to Shalkar, and the next day, together with acquaintances, he drove in his mother's car to the "Rabochy" district to meet with the other side of the conflict.
In the early hours of March 20, Alikhan was wounded in the chest with a hunting knife. He died at the scene.
After school, the young man worked part-time and planned to join the army and then enter university.
At trial, the student pleaded not guilty, claiming he was attacked and acted in self-defense. Prosecutor Osman Orynbasaruly dismissed this as an attempt to evade responsibility. Alikhan's parents asked for a 20-year prison sentence for the defendant.
"We had high hopes for Alikhan. He was kind and open," said Rauan Niyazmagambetova, the mother of the deceased.
The prosecutor sought eight years for the accused.
The specialized interdistrict criminal court of Aktobe Region ultimately sentenced the student to nine years in a medium-security facility. He is now 18, but was a minor at the time of the murder — the court took this into account when passing sentence.
The convicted man must pay 15 million tenge to each of Alikhan's parents for moral damages. In addition, the court ordered him to compensate more than 2 million tenge in material damages and legal fees.
The court also issued a private ruling to the Aktobe Region Police Department, stating that police in Shalkar District had failed to prevent crimes among minors.
The sentence has not yet entered into legal force.