“Kazakh prosecutors stated that they twice asked in Kiev information that would confirm the involvement of Jakanbayev and Karatayev in the murder of Aidos Sadikov, but never received the answer”, – WRITE: www.radiosvoboda.org
According to Natalia Sadikov’s wife in her social networks, Ukrainian investigators were asked to grant him the status of a suspect after the detention of Jakanbayev in Kazakhstan in Kazakhstan and conduct interrogation. But the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan refused to do so, referring to the “insufficiency of the evidence base”.
The Kazakh prosecutors stated that they had twice asked in Kiev information that would confirm the involvement of Zhakanbayev and Karatayev in the murder of Aidos Sadikov, but never received answers.
“According to Kazakh legislation, the prosecution cannot be based on assumptions and must be confirmed by a sufficient set of admissible and reliable evidence. In view of the incompleteness of the case files confirming the guilt of the named persons, guided by Article 5, paragraph 1, subparagraph “a” of the Treaty of 29.10.2018, it is impossible to fulfill the request, ” – said in the response of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
The widow of the killed oppositionist Natalia Sadikova believes that by this letter the Kazakhstan authorities violates the contract on mutual legal assistance with Ukraine. Sadikov insists that the investigative bodies of Ukraine have enough evidence that indicate that the crime was committed by Jakanbayev and Karatayev. And all of them, she said, were transferred to the Kazakh side.
Aidos Sadikov was killed in the summer of 2024. On June 18, he was shot in the courtyard of his house in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kiev, where he lived after leaving Kazakhstan, a few days later the journalist died. Ukrainian investigators suspect the crime of two citizens of Kazakhstan, Altai Zhakanbayev and Meiram Karatayev. According to investigators, they came to Ukraine from Poland on June 2 and rented housing at various addresses. On June 6, Zhakanbayev bought an Opel Vectra car to track Kazakhstan opposition, and two days later he and Karatayev rented an apartment near the Sadikov’s place of residence and began to study his daily routine and habits.
On June 18, Karatayev shot in the head of Sadikov, who was in the car with his wife Natalia. After that, Karatayev and Zhakanbayev disappeared, and the muffler gun was thrown near the fence on the territory of the Kiev Zoo. After the attempt, they left for Moldova.
In Ukraine, Altai Zhakanbayev and Meiram Karatayev was arrested in absentia and made on the international wanted list. But the Kazakhstan authorities stated that the Altai Zhakanbayev, who surrendered to the local police, would not give Ukraine.