ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A military court in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, has acquitted the defendant in a high-profile trial related to the death of a 4-year-old child during unrest in Kazakhstan in January last year that claimed at least 238 lives.
Aikorkem Meldekhan was shot dead in Almaty -- most likely by military personnel, according to official investigations -- when she and other members of her family were in a car on their way to a grocery store on January 7, 2022. The vehicle was sprayed with at least 20 bullets, also wounding Aikorkem's 15-year-old sister. A forensic investigation concluded that the bullets were shot from firearms used by the military.
The Military Court of Almaty Garrison found the defendant in the case, a military serviceman, Arman Zhuman, not guilty.
Prosecutors sought seven years in prison for Zhuman on a charge of abuse of power with the usage of firearms that led to the death of a child.
The trial, which started on July 26, was held behind closed doors as the court said some of the materials were classified.
Lawyers of Meldekhan's family have insisted the case should be sent back for additional investigation and that the charge be changed from abuse of power to the murder of a minor and attempted murder. They also wanted other military personnel involved in the deadly shooting brought to justice.
The car in which 4-year-old Aikorkem Meldekhan was riding in when she was shot dead in Almaty
The girl's family also requested that probes be launched against investigators and prosecutors who initially closed the case.
Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed by Kazakh security forces during a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters in January 2022.
With the country in the throes of unrest, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev gave police and military troops the controversial order to "shoot to kill without warning." He justified the move by saying that "20,000 extremists trained in foreign terrorist camps" had seized the Almaty airport and other buildings. No evidence of foreign-trained demonstrators has ever been presented.
The order sparked an outcry, and Aikorkem's picture turned into an image symbolizing the victims of the crackdown, many of whom were killed -- some by torture -- by police, security forces, and military personnel, including troops of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, whom Toqaev invited into the country "to restore law and order."