A court in Kazakhstan's Karaganda Region has reviewed an appeal in the case of teenagers who brutally beat an elderly man in his own home in Temirtau, the website infohub.kz reports.
According to Channel 31, the Karaganda Regional Court heard an appeal filed by the teenagers who abused the elderly man. The crime, which shocked Kazakhstanis, took place in February last year: a group of teenagers tricked their way into the pensioner's apartment, where they humiliated him, beat him and filmed the whole ordeal. It also emerged that one of the attackers had previously beaten and robbed another person.
A juvenile court convicted nine people at once, seven of whom were 15–16 years old at the time of the crime. All received real prison terms — from seven to five years behind bars.
This time the appeal was filed by the prosecutor and the defendants. As a result, the court partially added the unserved part of one convict's sentence under a previous ruling — he will now serve six years instead of five.
"In the remaining part, the court's verdict was left unchanged. The prosecutor's appeal motion was partially granted, while the complaints of the convicted and their defense lawyers were left without satisfaction. The court's verdict has entered into legal force," said Dana Sarsekeyeva, the judge-coordinator for media relations of the criminal panel of the Karaganda Regional Court.
Recall that in March last year, information spread on social media that teenagers in Temirtau had burst into a lonely man's home posing as electricians and beaten him. Police said everyone involved, including minors, had been detained and placed in a temporary detention center. Later, the Karaganda Region prosecutor's office reported that all suspects in the attack, including seven teenagers, had been taken into custody.
The trial in the case began in September last year. It emerged that the attack was not an isolated incident. In April this year, nine participants in the beating were sentenced.