Private "Hunger"

"Border Guard Killer" on Trial in Kazakhstan

The trial in the case of the massacre at the Arkankergen border post has begun in Kazakhstan. In the dock, Vladislav Chelakh is the only border guard to survive at the outpost. He is accused of killing 14 colleagues and a huntsman. They want to complete the judicial investigation as quickly as possible - hearings are held daily. However, so far no significant evidence of the private’s guilt has been presented.

Official version

At the end of May, the Arkankergen post, located on the border with China, was completely burned, and the soldiers and officers who served there died. The investigation into the high-profile case lasted almost six months. The best operatives from several law enforcement agencies at once were brought in to him - the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General's Office, the National Security Committee and the Military Investigation Department. Their version of what actually happened at Arkankergen looks like this: 20-year-old private Vladislav Chelakh shot his fellow soldiers due to internal conflicts at the outpost and at the same time killed a huntsman (apparently as an unnecessary witness). Then he doused the border post premises with gasoline and set it on fire, leaving some personal belongings of the border guards for himself. He planned to hide in the mountains, but a few days later he was detained in one of the “wintering camps.”

The official representative of the Prosecutor General's Office, Nurdaulet Suindikov, said that the murder was committed early in the morning of May 28, so all the victims were unarmed at that time, and “individual awake colleagues did not take it seriously when weapons were pointed at them.” Chelakh himself allegedly told investigators about this. He gave a confession at the beginning of June, that is, almost immediately after his arrest. He later renounced them, claiming that he was “subjected to psychological pressure.” The private began to insist that the post was attacked by unknown persons, but the official version of what happened remained unchanged.

Border post "Arkankergen". YouTube video screenshot

In October, Chelakh was charged with eight counts. In addition to murder, he was charged with the destruction of military property, theft of personal belongings of colleagues, theft of state secrets (among the stolen items was a map of the state border), breaking into someone else's home, theft and illegal carrying of weapons, and, finally, desertion. The private's file consisted of 56 volumes, three of which were classified. The prosecutor's office explained that these materials contain information about the activities of the border service and are not directly related to the massacre at Arkankergen.

In general, the Kazakh authorities turned out to be extremely generous with all kinds of explanations and clarifications in connection with the Chelakha case. The progress of the investigation was actively covered in the media, and with the permission of law enforcement officers, recordings of the private’s interrogation (with his confession), films that captured the investigative experiment with his participation, and Chelakh’s conversation with the psychologist (where he tells the details of the murder) became public knowledge. Such openness, coupled with information leaks, was supposed to compensate for numerous inconsistencies in the official version, but the authorities failed to achieve the result they needed. Not the least role in this was played by the opposition media, which promoted “alternative” versions of the attack on the post by extremists and the “showdown” of high-ranking officials. The Guljan publication, which insisted on Chelakh’s innocence, posted on its website part of the case materials, in which previously unknown details were revealed. For example, the fact that numerous fractures and bruises were found on the body of the deceased huntsman, as if after a beating. And shell casings from several machine guns were scattered throughout the post, although Chelakh claimed during interrogation that he fired from one.

First hearings

During the preliminary hearings, Chelakh made a sensational statement for many, refusing a jury trial. According to the defendant's lawyer Serik Sarsenov, his client "had doubts that this trial would be impartial." The lawyer added on his own behalf that given the resonance of the case, pressure could be put on the jury. That is, Chelakh was advised to choose the process in a professional court by his lawyer.

The substantive hearings began on November 19 in the court of the city of Taldykorgan (the administrative center of the Almaty region of Kazakhstan). Three prosecutors represented the prosecution. They refused to give any comments. “I can’t tell you anything. I still don’t know whether he’s guilty or not. The court will decide everything,” State Prosecutor Alexander Kiriyak told reporters.

At the very first meeting, the private partially admitted his guilt - but only to the fact that he set fire to the outpost building and misappropriated other people's property. He denied the murder charges. “The accused Vladislav Chelakh tried not to look into the lenses of video cameras and cameras. He only occasionally glanced quickly from under his brows at the courtroom and lowered his eyes again. The baseball cap on his head did not allow him to see his face. People from the courtroom kept shouting at him to take off his cap,” - this is how a BBC correspondent described the first meeting. After judge Erbol Akhmetzhanov asked Chelakh to introduce himself, he complained about the noise in the hall. “Your honor! I ask you to remove all the press from here, I can’t hear myself,” the defendant shouted. His request was fulfilled - the media workers were escorted out of the hall, and a video broadcast was organized for them.

The judge, meanwhile, began questioning witnesses. In particular, the border guard who participated in the detention of Chelakha testified. According to him, the defendant claimed that the post was attacked by the Chinese. “I asked: “Why do you think so?” - and he replied that he thinks so,” - this is how the witness relayed their conversation. Chelakh also told him that, having found his colleagues dead, he burned the outpost because “he was afraid of what they would think of him.”

Vladislav Chelakh with a lawyer. Photo from arkankergen.files.wordpress.com

Another witness, contract soldier Samat Akhanov, who spent about a week on Arkankergen, said that Chelakh had conflicts with military personnel. The private, according to him, refused to do hard work due to an operation to remove appendicitis, and did not like to do chores. The witness also reported that the soldiers among themselves called Chelakha “Hunger” - supposedly he was constantly hungry.

“When Kereev ( post commander Altynbek Kereev, whom Akhanov replaced during his absence ) was leaving, he told me not to give out cartridges to the soldiers and the sentries, as if something might happen,” the serviceman added.

Another participant in the meeting, signalman Zhasulan Doskaev, stated that on the night of May 30 (when Arkankergen had already been destroyed), the connection between the post and the neighboring Sary-Bokter outpost was working properly. At the same time, according to the investigation, there was no connection.

It is worth dwelling in more detail on the composition of the witnesses who were presented at the trial by the prosecution. According to Chelakha's lawyer, of the twenty people in question, most are not related to the case. “They interrogated two people. They were putting out a fire in a barn a hundred kilometers from the scene of the incident. Again, did Chelakh set it on fire?” - Serik Sarsenov was perplexed. to him According , the list of witnesses did not include the citizens who discovered the missing horses from the post, as well as the head of the Sary-Bokter outpost, under whose subordination Arkankergen is located. The lawyer promised to file a request to interrogate them in the near future, but there is little chance that his (the request) will be granted. This is evidenced by the fact that the judge rejected all of Sarsenov’s previous requests (in particular, to disqualify the prosecutor and allow Chelakha to familiarize himself with the classified volumes of the case).

Actually, Sarsenov’s role at the hearings is so far limited to filing petitions. However, during breaks between court hearings, the lawyer makes truly sensational statements. For example, on November 20, he told reporters that 18 corpses were found on the Arkankergen, and not 15, as the investigation claims. The lawyer allegedly found out about this only now, when he more carefully studied the materials of the criminal case. “It’s hard for me to say why the court is hiding this and how Chelakh is being tried for 15 corpses. These are questions for the court,” he noted. The question of the bodies of the dead found on the Arkankergen is extremely painful for the prosecution, since two bodies, presumably border guards Denis Rey and Meirkhan Imenov, could not be identified. The military prosecutor's office claimed that the remains were too badly burned.

The prosecution, in turn, chose the tactics tested at the investigation stage and is showing video recordings of Chelakh’s confessions. Thus, at the meeting on November 21, a video was shown, allegedly filmed by a hidden camera. It captured a conversation between Chelakh and a cellmate in a pre-trial detention center. Chelakh tells him about the murder, about how he tried to escape with the loot “beyond the cordon” and “did not suspect that the whole of Kazakhstan was looking for him.” A few minutes before the film was shown to those present, Chelakh had a nervous breakdown. He broke off a piece of chipboard from the bench he was sitting on and tried to cut his wrists with it. The bailiffs tied up the defendant and took him out of the hall. At the same time, the border guard shouted that he refused to participate in the meeting (after a break it was continued without him). Chelakh had already tried to commit suicide more than a month ago - he wanted to hang himself in a pre-trial detention center with his sweatpants tied to the window bars, but the guards noticed him in time. In connection with the incident, Chelakh’s lawyer demanded that his client be retested for sanity, but the judge rejected this request.

On November 22, the court continued to watch the recording of the conversation in the pre-trial detention center, and then showed a recording of Chelakha’s conversation with his mother, where he again confesses to committing a mass murder. To the question of Svetlana Vashchenko’s mother: “Why are you taking someone else’s blame upon yourself?” - he replies: “Mom, it’s my fault. (...) I’m not shielding anyone, Mom. It’s completely my fault.”

Such a thorough viewing of the “films” at the meetings is understandable - there are no witnesses to the massacre at the border post. However, the recordings of Chelakh’s confessions, which he subsequently retracted, cannot be considered evidence of his guilt, especially since the defendant’s relatives have already raised the question of their authenticity. However, the prosecutors may have saved their more compelling arguments for last.

Anna Kozyreva

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