"Almaty shooter" in Kazakhstan refuses to file an appeal
ALMATY. Nov 2 (Interfax) - Ruslan Kulekbayev, sentenced earlier today in Kazakhstan to capital punishment for committing terrorist acts in Almaty in June of this year and killing ten people, refused to file an appeal, his defense lawyer Gabit Kusainov said.
"Ruslan Kulekbayev has refused to file an appeal," the lawyer told Interfax-Kazakhstan.
The Almaty Court sentenced Ruslan Kulekbayev, who committed the terrorist act in Almaty in June this year, to capital punishment. The presiding judge Erlan Bolatov delivered the death penalty verdict on Wednesday.
Kulekbayev was charged with carrying out a terrorist act resulting in the deaths of eight law enforcement and special services officials, as well as two citizens, and the attempted murder of three citizens. Besides Kulekbayev, five people are on trial for illegal storage, possession, acquisition and production of firearms and assaulting a businessman.
The city prosecutors earlier said the criminal case comprises over 60 volumes. Fifty-seven judicial evaluations and tests were performed and over 200 witnesses and eyewitnesses were questioned in the course of the investigation.
Kulekbayev, a Salafist and former convict, attacked the building of a police station in the Almala district in Almaty and the city department of the National Security Committee on July 18. He went on a shooting spree, killing six people on the spot. Six people were hospitalized and several police officers died in hospital later.
An indefinite presidential decree declaring a moratorium on the use of the death penalty has been in effect in Kazakhstan since 2003. In 2004, Kazakhstan introduced a new type of punishment - life imprisonment, which is an alternative to the death penalty.
The death penalty as a form of criminal punishment has not been formally abolished by the moratorium and can be carried out one year from the lifting of the moratorium.
