Rizuan Khairzhanov and Altynbek Katimov, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Atyrau resident Yana Legkodimova, were transferred this week to facility No. 39 'Cherny Berkut'. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Ak Zhaik.

Unexpected questions arose regarding the location of the convicts. The public foundation 'NeMolchiKZ' sent an appeal to the Committee of the Penitentiary System of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan asking to confirm or deny information that Khairzhanov and Katimov are allegedly not in 'Cherny Berkut' but in facility No. 76 in Kostanay.

According to the foundation, the convicts might have been held in the Kostanay facility, despite the fact that earlier the CPS informed the injured party that the sentence was being served in accordance with the court verdict that had entered into legal force.

As the publication learned, both convicts were delivered this week to facility No. 39 'Cherny Berkut', where persons sentenced to life imprisonment are supposed to be held.

Incidentally, in April 2026, the editorial board of Kursiv had already contacted the CPS of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan to confirm the transfer to 'Cherny Berkut'. At that time, the department responded that the transfer took place on April 19.

Recall that the investigation into the brutal murder of Yana Legkodimova from Atyrau lasted nine months, eight of which were spent searching for her body.

In October 2024, Khairzhanov and Katimov lured the girl outside, strangled her in a car, and threw her body into the Ural River. When the body was found, the mother of the deceased said that she 'sat near the morgue and hugged a bag of bones'.

In court, horrifying details emerged about how the murder was planned in the WhatsApp messenger. In particular, the criminals discussed the 'price for murder' in correspondence and valued Yana's life at 500 thousand tenge. The murderers equated this amount to 'garage repairs', a 'capsule coffee machine', or 'car parts'.

In mid-November, the defendants Rizuan Khairzhanov and Altynbek Katimov were sentenced to life imprisonment in a maximum-security facility.

In February 2026, an appeal was held. The defense of convict Katimov asked to review the sentence and mitigate the punishment. However, the court left the sentence unchanged.