By Tatyana TEN, Karaganda

(translated from Russian)

Amantay Usentayev became gravely disabled, lost his memory and mobility after horrendous torture to which he was subjected by police officers at Satpayevo Department of Interior.

Zhezkagan City Court on behalf of Kazakhstan Republic has established the respondents in the case – Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Finance – and obliged them to pay the victim and his parents five million tenge [approximately $42,000] in material and moral damages. The respondents refuse to abide.

Kazakh Republic Ministry of Interior believes that the damages must be compensated from public purse, and therefore should be paid by Ministry of Finance. While Ministry of Finance insists that damages must be compensated by those who directly caused them, that is, by Satpayevo Department of Interior. Or by the Ministry of Interior itself…

Amantay's father, Karatay Usentayev, gave us his son's pictures. What he looked like before and after February 20^th, 2005. Without inhibition or doubts he asked us to publish them as irrefutable evidence of his son's past and present life. If current existence of this unfortunate family can be called a life.

We have already covered the flagrant crime committed by ex-officers of Satpayevo police station on February 20^th, 2005. This is what happened. Detective Mahmut Unchibayev and investigator Nurgali Belkidekov subjected a completely innocent security guard of Kazakhmys Corporation, Amantay Usentayev, to horrendous tortures, trying to beat out of him a confession to a crime he did not commit. They were tying the handcuffed young man to a chair and putting a gas helmet over his head, cutting off air supply. When he fainted, they were taking the gas helmet off, bringing him back, and then pulling the gas helmet on again.

These atrocities were performed not in some secret flat or an abandoned garage. The interrogation took place in the investigator's office, at the police station. And the gas helmet in question was kept by cops in their official safe box.

Unchibayev and Belkidekov were found guilty and convicted. But prior to justice being done, authorities refused trice to bring criminal charges "for reason of insufficient evidence to initiate criminal prosecution".

After 12 hours of interrogation in the investigator's office Amantay Usentayev lost consciousness for good. He was taken to the emergency care in coma. And then transferred into care of his parents. A helpless creature – no memory, no movement, and no consciousness. This evidence was considered insufficient.

– We arrived to Kazakhstan on September 1^st, 2004, - says Karatay Usentayev, Amantay's father, who can hardly hold back his angry tears. – We believed that here, in our home land, we are expected and welcome. And we were not grumbling when realized that no one needs us here that much, and that it is hard for oralmans [ethnic Kazakh repatriates] to make it and move up in their new home land. We placed all our hopes on Amantay, our eldest son. Our boy is persistent, honest, strong. He graduated from International Kazakh-Turkish University, got a law degree. He believed that sooner or later he would become an investigator. It's scary to remember that, but that was his dream. But all that collapsed on February 20^th, 2005. In fact, I lost my son, my life support, my faith in justice. And I see no meaning in my life any more.

After six months Amantay's wife gave up on him and left. Amantay's only care-givers are his elderly parents, both disabled. By himself Amantay can only breathe. Today he weighs less than 40 kilos. He cannot swallow; he cannot coordinate his movements; he recognizes no one and understands nothing. The family of three lives on three disability pensions, a total of about 40,000 tenge per month [approximately $300], and 20,000 of that sum is monthly paid to a nurse. They are renting an apartment in Zhezkagan, have neither family nor friends in this city. The city where they hoped to build a new and happy life, and where they are still strangers.

– At first we waited, - Karatay says. – We could not believe that we were just left alone with our tragedy. We were sure that someone will come, a government person, and apologize or at least explain. No one came. No one apologized, no one sympathized, no one helped. And no one was going to punish stranglers of my son.

After one year, on January 23, 2006, Karatay sent nine angry letters to governmental offices in one day: to the Prosecutor General, to the Minister of Interior, etc. …

"I am not bullying you or threatening you, - he wrote in that letter. – I am writing in desperation this very last complaint in my life. The last one because if I again receive no reply to this complaint, if again nothing will be done to bring to criminal justice the policemen who are guilty of my son's tragedy, I will come to Astana and I will burn myself right in front of the Prosecutor General's Office! My family and I were not having too bad a life abroad. And we returned to our Motherland not because we were starving, but because we were missing our Motherland. I ask you, I beg you! Do not send this complaint of mine back to our region. Send your officers here, so that they would first hand verify everything that I am saying in this letter…"

This time Karatay's complaint has not been sent back to the region. A team of investigators from Astana came to Zhezkagan and Satpayevo. Their work resulted in a trial over the policemen and in a verdict that has not made the father feel much safer.

Another year passed. Life had to go on. Karatay, upon advice from lawyers, filed a complaint against the felons seeking monetary compensation for material and moral damages. Material damages were calculated up to a penny. Lost salary of his son for all the months of investigation and trial. Costs of nurse, medication, treatment, and transportation. A total of 3 million and 743 thousand tenges. "The accuracy of this amount is verified and causes no doubt", - the court said in its decision. What is more, the court obligated the defendant to make monthly payments to the victim's family in the amount of the son's monthly salary.

As for moral damages to his family, Karatay assessed it at 50 million tenges.

– Everyone is outraged at seeing this sum, and say that I am out of my mind! – Karatay says. – No, ladies and gentlemen, I am in my right mind. And I will do all it takes to make the government pay the bill. This money won't save Amantay, it will not help me or his mother. Our life was over on February 20^th, 2005. I want to send my younger son and my daughter abroad. I am afraid for their lives and their futures. I want them to leave. For China, for America… Whatever, as long as it is far away from this cruel and unfair life.

The court awarded much lower moral damages: one million tenges to Amantay and 500,000 each to his mother and father. The court designated Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Finance as respondents in the lawsuit.

"A representative of the Ministry of Interior respondent disagreed with the claim at court. Without denying the fact of damage caused by the police officers, without disputing the amount, the respondent believes that damages should be compensated at the expense of public purse, that is, the Kazakhstan Republic Ministry of Finance."

"A representative of the Ministry of Finance respondent disagreed with the claim too. Without objecting to the compensation amount, the respondent nods to the party that has immediately caused harm and therefore should compensate the damages".

Despite respondents' objections, Zhezkagan City Court on March 21, 2008, found in favor of the plaintiff and ordered Ministry of Finance to pay the above amount. On April 4^th Ministry of Finance lodged an appeal.

We quote below the key argument from the Ministry of Finance's appeal:

"Allocating money from the Kazakhstan Republic Government funds reserved for satisfying liabilities awarded by courts is performed in cases stipulated in Article 923 of the Kazakhstan Republic Civil Code which provides that harm caused to a citizen by unlawful conviction, unlawful criminal charges, unlawful arrest and detention, home arrest, restriction on travel, … unlawful placement into a mental institution or other medical facility, shall be compensated by the government in full regardless of guilt of officers of inquiry agencies, preliminary investigation agencies, public prosecution or court, according to procedures stipulated by law.

Since none of the above listed actions were applied to A.K. Usentayev, Ministry of Finance maintains that the court had no grounds to recover the amount of harm from Ministry of Finance that administers the Kazakhstan Republic Government reserve funds under 010 state budget line for the unlawful actions of the Department of Interior that are not stipulated in Article 923 of the KR Civil Code".

What can you say… Indeed, the Civil Code does not provide for torture. Lawmakers who adopted the Civil Code were probably assuming that in our country no police officer would ever subject a Kazakhstan citizen to a sophisticated torment. Even our Criminal Code got supplemented with the Article 347-1 entitled "Torture" just recently, five years ago. And no one thought of simultaneously adding "torture" to the Civil Code.

Skillfully playing out this legal gap, the financiers ask to reexamine the claim in court and insist that its respondent should be "the Satpayevo City Department of Interior as the immediate harm-doer, who must therefore compensate awarded moral damages from its own funds".

The court declined the financiers' appeal. Its decision came into legal force on May 14^th. However, the bouncing game goes on. Ministry of Finance asks the court to postpone enforcement of its decision. Apparently the financers are looking for a new loophole, determined to protect the public purse and save it from devastation. Would they pay Usentayev today, tomorrow they may be overwhelmed with claims from all other victims of police abuse!

P.S. Karatay Usentayev asked us to pass a message to Minister of Interior Baurzhan Muhamedzhanov via our newspaper that he would like very much to have an appointment with him. "I have things to tell him." We hereby fulfill Karatay's request and join it.

By Tatyana TEN, Karaganda

In our previous issue we published an article entitled Life Turned into Hell.

We told the story of Amantay Usentayev who became gravely disabled after being subjected to torture by officers of Saptayevo City Department of Interior. The victim's father Karatay Usentayev asked the newspaper to publish his request addressed to Baurzhan Muhamedzhanov, Minister of Interior: he would like very much to have a personal appointment with the Minister. We have fulfilled his request and joined it.

After our publication on August 13^th, Karatay Usentayev received a call from the Interior Minister's office and was told that Baurzhan Muhamedzhanov has read the article and is ready to hear the father.

– They made an appointment with me for September 3^rd, - Karatay Usentayev says, - and said that the Minister will be waiting.

Karatay Usentayev wishes to thank our newspaper for our interest in his family. And we are hoping that our newspaper is read not only at the Ministry of Interior, but at the Kazakhstan Republic Ministry of Finance as well. And we are looking forward to the financial agency's response. We are reminding that the Ministry of Finance has not complied yet with the court order to compensate Usentayev's family material and moral damages.