The 2021 Akbulak Shooting

On September 20, 2021, police officers and a private judicial executor arrived at a property in Almaty's Akbulak microdistrict to enforce an eviction order. The group also included the new owner of the foreclosed property and another civilian. During the enforcement action, resident Igor Duzhnov opened fire. Two police officers, the judicial executor and two civilians were killed.

The property dispute and eviction

The shooting followed a long-running dispute over property that had been used as collateral for debt. Duzhnov and his family challenged the loss of the property and maintained that the eviction was illegitimate. Those objections became part of his explanation for the violence, but the criminal court did not accept the claim that the victims were unlawfully attacking him.

Contemporary reporting on the judgment states that the people who arrived at the house were carrying out a lawful eviction and that they had not attacked Duzhnov or members of his family. That distinction matters: this dossier records his defense position as a claim, not as an established justification.

Five people killed

The victims were two police officers, a private judicial executor, the new owner of the property and a civilian accompanying him. Reporting immediately after the incident described special police units moving in after the shooting. Authorities said officers avoided using firearms during the arrest because women and children were still inside the house.

The five deaths are treated here as one case because they occurred in the same enforcement action and were prosecuted as part of the same criminal proceeding. Crime by Region does not split individual victims into separate pages to inflate a country's case count.

The prosecution

Duzhnov was prosecuted not only for the killings but also for offenses tied to attacks on law-enforcement personnel, noncompliance with a judicial act and participation in a foreign armed conflict. During trial he acknowledged having taken part in fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014–2015, while contesting the prosecution's characterization of his conduct in Akbulak.

He did not accept criminal responsibility in the way alleged by prosecutors and continued to frame the shooting through the property dispute. The court nevertheless found the evidence sufficient for conviction on the homicide and related counts.

Life sentence and appeal

On April 26, 2022, a specialized criminal court in Almaty sentenced Duzhnov to life imprisonment in an institution of the highest security level. The judgment covered the murders of the five victims as well as the related offenses established in the proceeding.

Duzhnov later challenged the sentence. Subsequent Kazakh reporting records that the appellate court left the life sentence unchanged. The case is therefore classified as solved/adjudicated: responsibility for the five killings was established by a criminal judgment that survived appellate review.

Timeline

1. September 20, 2021
   Eviction enforcement begins

   Police officers, a private judicial executor and civilians arrive at the Akbulak property to carry out a court order.

2. September 20, 2021
   Five people are killed

   Duzhnov opens fire, killing two police officers, the judicial executor and two civilians.

3. March 2022
   Criminal trial begins

   The Almaty court hears the homicide case and related charges.

4. April 26, 2022
   Life sentence imposed

   Duzhnov is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

5. 2022
   Appeal fails

   The appellate court leaves the sentence unchanged.