Explore documented criminal cases from Kazakhstan with source-backed chronology, verified legal-status labels and a victim-aware editorial approach. The archive distinguishes completed adjudication from open or materially unresolved cases rather than treating arrests, allegations or preliminary rulings as final outcomes.
A case appears under Solved / Adjudicated only when reliable records support a sufficiently definitive investigative or legal outcome. Arrest, accusation or a press label alone is not enough. Cases with unresolved responsibility, open investigations or materially incomplete outcomes belong under Unsolved / Partial.
Security guard Nurbol Qayipbayev died after an attack at an Almaty residential complex in March 2024. Askar Tastandiyev was convicted of murder, received a 22-year combined sentence, and remained under that sentence after appeal.
Open case file →Al-Beine Zaripova was killed at her Almaty home in January 2024. Her husband Sabyrzhan Zaripov was convicted of murder and theft, received a 15-year prison sentence, and lost his appeal to reclassify the homicide.
Open case file →Two men died after violence connected to Aktobe's Billionaire nightclub in October 2022. Khasenov and Tuktibay were convicted of the murders and received 15- and 17-year sentences, while other defendants were convicted of different offenses arising from the same episode.
Open case file →Sixteen-year-old Sherzat Polat was fatally stabbed during a confrontation in Talgar in October 2024. Abzal Shynasyl was convicted of homicide and received 23 years, while eight other defendants received sentences for separately adjudicated offenses arising from the episode.
Open case file →A jury convicted Sergey Yarovoy in a multi-victim East Kazakhstan serial-murder and sexual-violence case in 2011. The court imposed life imprisonment after a proceeding centered on six homicide victims and two surviving sexual-assault victims.
Open case file →Five people were killed during a court-ordered eviction in Almaty's Akbulak district in September 2021. Igor Duzhnov was convicted of the killings and related offenses and received a life sentence that was left unchanged on appeal.
Open case file →Businessman Iosif Milgram and driver Dmitry Tarasov were killed in Almaty in 1993. A five-year investigation eventually led to convictions for shooter Zakir Salakhutdinov and organizer Valentin Li.
Open case file →Eight people were killed when armed attackers struck two weapons shops and a National Guard facility in Aktobe in June 2016. A later trial convicted 29 defendants, with seven direct attackers receiving life sentences.
Open case file →Banker Yerzhan Tatishev was shot during a 2004 hunting trip. The death was first treated as negligent killing, but a reopened case led to a murder conviction for Muratkhan Tokmadi and a later in-absentia organizer conviction.
Open case file →Yana Legkodimova disappeared in Atyrau in October 2024. Two men were convicted of her murder and received life sentences that were upheld on appeal in February 2026.
Open case file →A series of killings in Almaty and Almaty Region was linked to a group led by Alexander Suvorov, known as Borman. Surviving defendants were convicted in 2003 after investigators reconstructed the series.
Open case file →Aisulu Zhambarbek disappeared after taking a taxi home from college in Almaty in December 2013. Driver Vitaly Atapin was later convicted of murder and robbery and sentenced to 18 years.
Open case file →Investigators linked Nikolai Dzhumagaliev to at least ten killings. A court ordered compulsory psychiatric treatment, and later DNA evidence tied him to a previously unresolved 1990 Aktobe murder.
Open case file →Kazakh opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbayuly, bodyguard Baurzhan Baybosyn and driver Vasily Zhuravlyov were killed near Almaty in February 2006. Ten defendants were convicted that year; later proceedings revised Yerzhan Utembayev's role while allegations about who ultimately commissioned the crime remained contested.
Open case file →A series of armed attacks in Almaty in July 2016 left ten people dead in the criminal case against Ruslan Kulekbayev. He was convicted of murder, attempted murder and terrorism; a death sentence imposed under Kazakhstan's moratorium was later replaced by life imprisonment.
Open case file →Fourteen Kazakh border guards and a gamekeeper were killed at the remote Arkankergen post in May 2012. Vladislav Chelakh was convicted of mass murder and sentenced to life; repeated appeals left the judgment in force, although he continues to maintain his innocence.
Open case file →Olympic figure-skating medalist Denis Ten was killed in Almaty in July 2018 after confronting men who were trying to steal mirrors from his car. Two men were convicted of murder and violent robbery and sentenced to 18 years; Kazakhstan's Supreme Court left the sentences in force in 2024.
Open case file →
Saltanat Nukenova died in Astana in November 2023. Former economy minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev was convicted of torture and murder in 2024, sentenced to 24 years, and his sentence was upheld on appeal.
Open case file →The Saltanat Nukenova case has a documented jury verdict, a 24-year sentence and an appellate ruling that left the judgment unchanged. Later reporting continues to describe Kuandyk Bishimbayev as serving that sentence. That record supports a solved/adjudicated classification.
“Solved” does not erase the broader public-policy questions raised by the case, including domestic-violence prevention and institutional response. It refers specifically to the adjudicated criminal responsibility in the published case file.
Case files prioritize court records, institutional reporting and established journalism. Where sources disagree, the page states the uncertainty rather than filling gaps with inference.