Dina Tansari, President of the “Don’t Keep Your Mouth Shut” Public Foundation published a post in her Facebook page.  The post goes under the title “Another Pedophile Evades Punishment”.  Dina Tansari reminded the audience of a scandal that happened in Shymkent last year – a 27-year old police officer dealing juvenile delinquents was accused of sexual harassment of girls brought in custody.

Work Full of “Hazards”?

The two victims reported to investigators that the Juvenile Delinquency Inspector frisked them too much “scrupulously”.

The first victim found herself vis-à-vis the Inspector, after he caught her smoking in the park. That was the reason, why the policeman invited the girl to his cruiser. The 14-year old girl dared not to confront the policeman and obeyed. The policeman claimed that there was an anti-drugs operation ongoing in the city and that the girl could have concealed narcotics in the intimate places. 

We do not know how the story would end. The girl had an attack of hysteria. The policeman was taken unawares and he let the girl go. The incident happened in December 2021. The same incident involving the same officer happened in February 2022. After that the two girls found each other and reported both incidents to parents.  Not immediately, but other police officers started an investigation. 

The investigation was commenced only after parents, furious about such exercise of power, addressed Dina Tansari and her Foundation.

He Sort of Overreacted …

A bit of a shock was the court verdict. Special Inter-District Criminal Court failed to reveal and prove the sexual harassment. But the police officer was found guilty of excess of jurisdiction and sent to a maximum-security prison for three years.

Human Rights activists are most certain that the process, as well as the final court verdict were nothing but pure manifestation of the double standard attitude. The court found that the policeman did excess the powers, but paid no attention to “serial” attention to intimate parts of the body.

Parents of the girls are not supportive of the verdict. They filed an appeal with appropriate bodies of Shymkent. The Office of the Shymkent Prosecutor intend to have the court to agree to issue a more robust measure of punishment.

If this particular case is not reconsidered and the initial verdict remains as is, that will mean that crimes against sexual immunity of those underaged are equal to petty hooliganism, such as obscene speech in public or spitting on the ground. 

All Known Facts

Prosecution General reported that as of the end of 2022, police officers were the most often law perpetrators.  That conclusion is only based on official statistics.  The question is how truthful is the statistical account of law violations committed by police officers, if the majority of such violations are never registered.  In Kazakhstan, it is very complicated to open up a criminal investigation against a police officer.  Also, complicated is to hope that a just verdict shall be issued in regards to a law violating policeman.

According to the 2021 Human Rights report for Kazakhstan, the national institutions punish policemen, who commit excesses of jurisdiction on random basis and prefer to do so, when it comes to corruption. In such situations, they assign scapegoats and orchestrate demonstrative punishments.  Those who deserve punishment most, remain unattended. 

General Prosecution reports that in 2015-2021, policemen were the most often violators and perpetrators of law, compared to other enforcement and security agencies.  Every year, some 516 criminal investigations took place, which means that every week some 10 police officers violated the law. 

“Ranking” report that bribery is the most popular crime committed by policemen (26%). 16% stand for fraud and 8% — for excess of jurisdiction.  Now, we know that even pedophiles in the uniform may get away with it, as those committing excesses of jurisdiction. 

Goes On and On…

In 2022, 45% of crimes committed by policemen were those associated with corruption and other offences against statehood and state governance.  In average, in the last 6 years, courts would initiate up to 100 criminal investigations of such crimes. 

8^th place in that “crime race” is held by judges.  There were 23 criminal investigations against judges in 2015-2021.  That does not mean that Kazakhstan cannot boast minor headcount of dirty judges. Despite highest salaries paid to judges, compared to other categories of public servants, that does not stop them from taking bribes for issuing necessary verdicts.

MPs of all levels also appear in crime chronicles.  In the last 6 years, 9 MPs were caught red-handed, but that does not seem to reflect the real order of things in this country.

The last place is help by Anti-Corruption officers.  According to official statistics, those officers least of all violate the law.  Or, they get caught least of all.   However, when we discuss crimes committed by public servants, we should pay attention to not as much the number of investigations, but the magnitude of corruption.  In 2009-2019, Kazakh corruptors stole more than KZT 160 billion.  The greatest damage to the national economy was caused in 2013, when corruptors stole from us KZT 80 billion.

The imperative question is – who is supposed to protect our citizens from criminals in police uniform, if our public governance institutions compete each other, to be called most criminal?

Of course, the immediate body is the Prosecution and the Anti-Corruption Service, as well Human Rights Commission under the President of Kazakhstan.  There are no other official bodies to confront the police criminality.

Meanwhile, human rights activists and public foundations are the only hope for citizens suffering from police perpetrations.  It is to the merit of them, that crimes committed by policemen or unwillingness of law-enforcement bodies to investigate such cases become publicly known.  The public reaction forces law-enforcement to obey the law, although very often that obedience is demonstrative.