Yelzhas Toksanbayev, an officer in the Kumbel Border Service unit in the East Kazakhstan Region, was indicted by Kazakhstan’s Main Military Prosecutor’s Office in relation to the 2024 death-by-suicide of Private Mukhamediyar Tastan in the unit. 

A hearing in the Semey Garrison Military Court is scheduled for April 22. 

The charge comes amid increased scrutiny of the deaths of Kazakh soldiers, often quite young, during peacetime. In 2023, military officials told the Kazakh Senate that 270 personnel had died in Kazakhstan between 2020 and 2023, with the top causes being illness, traffic accidents, and suicide. 

As I wrote earlier this year:

Hazing, paired with the context of Kazakhstan’s compulsory military service system, have drawn considerable critique, but little concrete action on the part of authorities. Families of soldiers who have died in unusual or unclear circumstances report inadequate attention by the authorities to their cases, and outright dismissal of their concerns about abuse within the military, occasionally with fatal consequences.

In late January, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defense acknowledged a recent slate of deaths and announced “a set of emergency measures… to prevent similar tragedies in the future.” Those measures included increasing the “personal responsibility of commanders and non-commissioned officers.”

Whether the movement in Mukhamediyar Tastan’s case is related to those measures or not, it illustrates the need to escalate responsibility when it comes to hazing. 

In September 2024, 18-year-old Private Mukhamediyar Tastan died by suicide. He shot himself in a border tower in East Kazakhstan region following months of verbal and physical abuse by his sergeant and possibly others further up in the hierarchy of the Kumbel border detachment in which he served.

In July 2025, Junior Sergeant Azamat Takybayev was sentenced to six years in prison after being found guilty of abuse of office (Article 451) for exerting emotional and physical pressure on Tastan.

At the time, as RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, Azattyk, reported, both Tastan’s family and Takybayev took issue with the results of the case.

“We didn’t send our son to the army to be killed. We didn’t send him to be beaten. We don’t agree with the decision,” Tastan’s mother, Rakhima Zhandarova, said. His father, Arman Togyzbayev, criticized the short sentence, saying, “How can they sentence a man who, through his humiliation, drove a man to shoot himself to five and a half years?”

Zhandarova also looked higher up in the chain of command for responsibility. “What punishment does the person who allowed this to happen deserve? Why do the officers who allowed this to happen continue to work as if nothing happened?”

“In that department, everyone beat the soldiers and abused them. They forced them to walk in single file. They didn’t let them sleep. They treated them like slaves. Everyone’s arms were covered in bruises. Now they’re blaming Takybayev exclusively for all of this. They say he was the one who drove my son to this,” Togyzbayev told RFE/RL in July 2025.

Takybayev himself also pointed to others in the unit as responsible, namely Officer Yelzhas Toksanbayev and Major E. Sadykov, who was in charge of the watchtower where Tastan died.

Although an internal investigation referenced in the 2025 trial found that the officers responsible for educational work and the unit psychologist failed to fulfill their duties, at the time there were no charges. 

When Azattyk requested comment from the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office of Kazakhstan, the reply stated that Takybayev’s guilt had been proven, but that no illegal actions on the part of officers Toksanbayev and Sadykov had been found.

That appears to have changed, in light of increased attention to hazing and its consequences in Kazakhstan. 

Batyrbek Aryntayev, Tastan’s family lawyer, told Azattyk that on March 6 – following an earlier special resolution ordering an investigation into the actions of the unit’s leadership – an indictment against Toksanbayev had been issued. The charge falls under Article 453, pertaining to “negligence in official duties resulting in grave consequences” and carries a sentenced of up to five years.

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If you or someone you know is struggling or has had thoughts of suicide, help is available.

You can reach free, confidential support:

International: findahelpline.com

U.S. & Canada: Call or text 988

U.K. & Ireland: Call 116 123

Australia: Call 13 11 14