Lunch from cigarette butts

“The sentence has already entered into legal force, there are no serious consequences, and taking into account the personality of the defendant, the punishment that was assigned is sufficient for his (the sergeant’s – T.G.) correction,” Bekbergenov said.

He explained that the sergeant had given an illegal order and the privates were not obliged to carry it out. According to the regulations, they should have contacted the higher command and reported the incident.

According to the case materials, in February 2024, conscripts from the logistics platoon of the medical company of military unit 25744 (marines) were cleaning the territory of the unit in Aktau on the instructions of a sergeant. Seeing cigarette butts on the floor, the platoon commander, 3rd class sergeant 42-year-old Adilet KERIMOV, ordered soldiers TURYSHEV and DOGDYRBAY to eat cigarette butts. Which they did.

Later, Dogdyrbay went to the medical center of the military unit complaining of food poisoning. A few days later, due to disorder in the room, the same sergeant kicked Turyshev in the chest. The commander, saying, “Hey, get up, don’t die,” kicked the fallen soldier several more times and gave the command, “Take a prone position!” Then the conscript was hit several more times while lying down.

In court, Kerimov did not admit guilt and said that he had not beaten anyone. A new commander was supposed to arrive at the unit, so the soldiers were cleaning up. Seeing the mess, he called two conscripts and reprimanded them.

Turyshev confirmed the beating and said that Dogdyrbay was sick and vomited after eating cigarette butts (he told the nurse that he ate a sandwich). Turyshev sent a photo of bruises and abrasions on his body to his father and asked for help somehow, fearing that he would be killed or maimed.

But Dogdyrbay gave different testimony in court. He allegedly did not see the beating of Turyshev and has no claims against anyone, and also confirmed the legend about the eaten sandwich.

By the verdict of the Aktobe Garrison Military Court on December 19, 2024, Kerimov was convicted under Part 1 of Article 451 (“abuse of power”) of the Criminal Code to 2 years of restriction of freedom, and was also sentenced to forced labor for 100 hours annually for the entire term of serving the sentence. On February 5, 2025, the appellate instance of the Military Court upheld the verdict unchanged.

Alikhan SULTANOV, photo by Vladimir ZAIKIN, Astana