Kazakhstan Amnesty Bill Could Free 1,500 Inmates, Excludes Violent Offenders

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...

Kuandyk Bishimbayev Murder Sentence Appeal Rejected

On June 26 an appeal court in Kazakhstan's capital Astana upheld the 24-year prison sentence for murder handed down to the country's former minister of national economy, Kuandyk Bishimbayev. On 13 May Bishimbayev, a minister in the government of Kazakhstan's first president Nursultan Nazarbayev, was found guilty of killing his common-law wife, Saltanat Nukenova, at a restaurant in Astana late last year. The appeal court ruling states: "The judicial board decides that the verdict of the Specialized Interdistrict Court on criminal cases of Astana from May 13, 2024, in respect of Kuandyk Bishimbayev, made with the participation of jurors, should be left unchanged." The owner of the restaurant where Nukenova was murdered, Bakhytzhan Baizhanov, was found guilty of harboring a particularly serious crime. Baizhanov was sentenced to four years in prison in a medium security penal institution. His sentence has also been upheld. During the trial, as public outrage over Nukenova’s killing simmered in Kazakhstan, president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a new law in April in line with OECD standards which tightens the penalties for domestic violence and provides more help for survivors. The legislation became widely-dubbed, “Saltanat’s Law.” Bishimbayev's lawyer, Nazken Kusainova, has commented that Bishimbayev intends to make further appeals to the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan and the Human Rights Committee.