A judicial panel for criminal cases in Shymkent has reviewed the appeal of Sherkhan Aimakhan, convicted of murdering Nurai Serikbai, and left the verdict unchanged, the website infohub.kz reports.
According to the official Telegram channel of Shymkent courts, the appellate instance examined the criminal case against Aimakhan. He had previously been found guilty by a first-instance court under Article 99, Part 2, Clause 5 of the Criminal Code (murder with extreme cruelty), Article 115-1 of the Criminal Code (stalking), and Article 125-1, Part 1 of the Criminal Code (forced marriage). He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the aggregate of crimes.
The victim's civil claim was partially satisfied: the convicted man was ordered to pay 25 million tenge in moral damages, as well as 5 million tenge for legal fees. Disagreeing with the verdict, lawyers for both the victim and the convicted man appealed.
In the appeal, the victim's side asked to increase the moral damages from 25 million tenge to 10 billion tenge. The convicted man's defense lawyers asked to change the court's verdict, acquit Aimakhan under Article 125-1, Part 1 (stalking) of the Criminal Code, find him guilty under Article 99, Part 1 of the Criminal Code (murder), and impose a fair punishment.
The prosecutor asked to leave the verdict unchanged and dismiss the appeals.
After reviewing the case, the panel agreed with the first-instance court's conclusions on Aimakhan's guilt and found no grounds to overturn or modify the verdict. Accordingly, by a ruling dated September 24, 2026, the verdict was left unchanged. The judicial act has entered into force.
Recall that the tragedy occurred on January 11 in Shymkent. Sherkhan Aimakhan stood trial on charges of murder, stalking, and forced marriage. On August 13, he received a life sentence. It later became known that the convicted man had filed an appeal.