In Almaty, the case of the former head of the city planning and urbanism department, Almaskhan Akhmedzhanov, was reviewed again. He was sentenced to nine years in a colony. The previous sentence — 11 years of imprisonment — was annulled in February. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Akhmedzhanov was found guilty of aiding and abetting fraud on an especially large scale and abuse of official powers. He will serve his sentence in a medium-security colony.
The former head of Almaty's land relations department, Ardak Samambetov, received five years and six months of imprisonment. The ex-head of the land management department, Yerlan Zharmukhanbetov, was sentenced to 13 years, and the former director of an appraisal company, Almazkhan Bakirov, to eight.
Entrepreneurs Mukhanbetaly Shalkarbekov and Berik Uskembayev were each given five-year suspended sentences. Under an amnesty marking the 30th anniversary of the Constitution, their terms were reduced to four years each.
"The sentence has not entered into legal force and can be appealed within 15 days," the agency clarifies.
Earlier, Kursiv reported that on February 17, 2025, Akhmedzhanov was sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment, and Samambetov to ten. According to the prosecution, Akhmedzhanov helped developers obtain construction permits bypassing the law, while Samambetov assisted him.
In March of the same year, the convicted individuals decided to appeal the sentence. The case concerned the illegal allocation of land and permits for the construction of elite residential complexes and social facilities. During the investigation, 25 episodes were studied and 250 witnesses were questioned.
In February 2026, the Almaty City Court annulled the first sentence. The case was returned to the prosecutor to eliminate procedural violations, and in April a repeat trial began.