Kazakhstan’s Mazhilis, the lower house of parliament, has approved in its first reading a draft amnesty law tied to the adoption of the country’s new Constitution. The measure could affect approximately 16,500 people, including around 1,500 inmates who could be released from prisons and other detention facilities.
The initiative is notable for its scale and because it combines criminal and administrative amnesty measures for the first time in Kazakhstan’s history.
According to lawmakers, the administrative component alone could affect around one million unpaid fines.
The proposal has sparked public debate over whether individuals involved in high-profile criminal cases could benefit from the measure. Some lawmakers have also argued that journalists and bloggers convicted under controversial legislation should be included.
Who Will Benefit?
According to Snezhanna Imasheva, chair of the Mazhilis Committee on Legislation and Judicial and Legal Reform, individuals convicted of minor offenses and criminal misdemeanors would be eligible for full release from punishment.
For offenses classified as medium severity, a different approach would apply. Individuals who caused no damage, or who have fully compensated victims, could qualify for complete release. Others could receive reductions in the remaining portions of their sentences.
Among the most common offenses covered by the amnesty are theft, livestock theft, and embezzlement or misappropriation of entrusted property.
Certain economic crimes may also qualify for partial sentence reductions. In some cases, individuals convicted of fraud could receive reduced sentences, provided the offenses do not involve corruption, particularly large-scale damages, or other exclusions specified in the legislation.
Imasheva said that approximately one million unpaid administrative fines totaling nearly $33 million could be written off. The measure would apply to fines for offenses committed before midnight on March 17, 2026, shortly after Kazakhstan’s new Constitution was adopted in a nationwide referendum.
Who Will Not Be Released?
The draft law excludes crimes against life and health, corruption offenses, terrorism, and extremism.
Those convicted of murder, assisting suicide, intentional infliction of serious, moderate, or minor bodily harm, assault, torture, stalking, HIV transmission, and sexual offenses will not be eligible for amnesty.
Those convicted of murder, assisting suicide, intentional infliction of bodily harm, assault, torture, stalking, HIV transmission, and sexual offenses will not be eligible for amnesty. The measure also excludes recently criminalized offenses such as acting as a financial “dropper” in fraud schemes and bride kidnapping.
High-Profile Convicts Remain Excluded
Former minister of national economy Kuandyk Bishimbayev, who was convicted in May 2024 of murdering his common-law wife, Saltanat Nukenova, will neither be released nor receive a sentence reduction. His convictions for murder committed with extreme cruelty and torture fall among the offenses excluded from the amnesty.
Another widely publicized defendant, Perizat Kairat, will also be ineligible. Kairat, the founder of the charity Biz Birgemiz Qazaqstan 2030, was convicted in a high-profile fraud case involving funds raised for flood victims and other charitable causes. Lawmakers said her conviction for large-scale fraud falls under offenses excluded from the amnesty. In July 2025, Kairat was sentenced to ten years in prison, while her mother, Gaini Alashbayeva, received seven years.
Lawmaker Calls for Journalists and Bloggers to Be Included
Mazhilis deputy Rinat Zaitov has urged lawmakers to extend the amnesty to individuals prosecuted for comments posted on social media.
According to Zaitov, parliament has an opportunity to use the amnesty to improve Kazakhstan’s international reputation.
He specifically called for relief for individuals prosecuted under Article 274 of Kazakhstan’s Criminal Code, which criminalizes the dissemination of what authorities classify as knowingly false information.
“We have people who are being prosecuted for comments on social media,” Zaitov said. “I appeal to all my colleagues to help ensure that those charged under Article 274 are included in the amnesty.”
The provision has repeatedly been used in recent years against journalists and media outlets.
In December 2025, authorities detained Amir Kasenov, editor-in-chief of the KazTAG news agency. Journalist Botagoz Omarova was also investigated under the same article in March this year. However, reports later indicated that the case against Omarova had been dropped.
First Combined Criminal and Administrative Amnesty
Amnesties have been carried out periodically in Kazakhstan, but this marks the first time a criminal amnesty has been combined with a broad administrative amnesty.
In total, the legislation covers 250 categories of administrative offenses. Serious violations that pose risks to public safety have been excluded. For example, fines for running red lights or significant speeding violations will not be canceled.
If adopted in its current form, the amnesty would become one of the largest legal relief measures in Kazakhstan’s post-independence history while maintaining strict exclusions for violent crimes, corruption, terrorism, and other offenses considered particularly dangerous to society.
