"Dear Kassym-Zhomart Kemelevich, hard life circumstances made me write this letter. My son, Viktor Tikhonov, former head of the department of the prosecutor’s office in Almaty, a legal adviser, a father of four children, three of whom are minors, is being illegally prosecuted, ”Tikhonov wrote in his letter.
He said that detention of his son and the investigation against him are directly related to his professional activities and "in fact the prosecution is nothing but a revenge for a principled stand on a particular case."
“Individuals from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau provided the prosecutor general’s office with knowingly false information about Viktor’s alleged connections with criminal schemes and about alleged patronage of smugglers and individuals involved in illegal gambling, as well as alleged ties with leaders of organized criminal groups. Today it is an irrefutable fact that none of the points on the suspicion has been proved," he said.
He said his son was arrested and prosecuted under Article 413 (knowingly illegal release of a person from criminal liability) of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan.
According to the ex-deputy head of the Senate, in March 2017, his son, taking a post of an acting prosecutor of the Nauryzbay district of the city of Almaty, re-qualified the charge against one person from robbery to hooliganism due to insufficient evidence of the robbery. Moreover, he did not receive any material or other benefits and never met the accused, which was proved by the investigation.
However, the court concluded that he was guided by “a feeling of apparent superiority”.
“Nevertheless, under such circumstances, the court agreed with the investigation V. Tikhonov’s motive was careerism and he committed this crime out of a sense of imaginary superiority, ” the letter says.
According to the ex-deputy head of the Senate, these actions were intended to shield the persons who carried out the arrest and indicted his son.
“All this was necessary in order to avoid possible negative consequences for the people who detained him and made a decision on the qualification of the allegedly fictitious criminal acts of my son," he said.
Sergey Tikhonov asked Tokayev to objectively assess the current situation and assign the prosecutor general’s office to supervise the case and consider protesting the revision of the judicial acts.
Photo source: akorda