Kazakhstan is – like many different international locations with a post-Soviet legacy – battling corrosive and widespread corruption. The Council of Europe’s Group of States in opposition to Corruption (GRECO) has called the extent of corruption in Kazakhstan “severe” and estimates that it’s pervasive in quite a few sectors within the nation, together with the general public sector and public establishments. The judiciary in Kazakhstan can be affected by this tendency, to the detriment of rule of regulation within the nation.
A sample of instances of judicial corruption will be noticed in Kazakhstan. For example, in 2020, a decide in a legal listening to of bribery in opposition to a civil servant who had illegally leased a plot of land acquired a bribe of $26,000 in return for acquitting the civil servant. The corruption got here to gentle when the appellate court docket overturned the acquittal. The decide was caught red-handed returning the bribe to the civil servant.
Transparency International publishes annual scores measuring corruption notion for nearly all international locations on this planet. Kazakhstan ranks 93rd out of 180; in comparison with Kyrgyzstan (141), Tajikistan (162), Turkmenistan (170), and Uzbekistan (121), it performs finest within the Central Asian area. Globally, Kazakhstan is flanked by international locations like India (tied with India at 93), Belarus (98), and Albania (98).
The Norwegian U4 Anti-Corruption Useful resource Centre has analyzed corruption trends in Kazakhstan. Such developments embody grand corruption, the place folks in energy have used their place to extract public funds, and likewise nepotism, the place folks use their place to provide preferential remedy to members of their household, clan, tribe or community. A famous example of both kinds of corruption was how former President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his household managed belongings and gained vast wealth through corruption schemes. However corruption within the public sector can be widespread – together with within the judiciary.
Since 2021, 30 judges have been held accountable for corruption, leading to 15 jail sentences, which notably is greater than within the earlier eight years mixed. One instance is the previous chairman of the Kostanay District Court docket, who final yr was sentenced to 9 years’ imprisonment for receiving a bribe of just about $40,000 in 2022. For the reason that finish of 2023, three judges in Almaty area and Konaev metropolis have additionally been accused of corruption. Extra worrying, in Talgar, a judge received a bribe in exchange for altering the compulsory medical measures for a person who had abused a child.
This downside will not be new in Kazakhstan, though it’s maybe extra seen as extra judges are being convicted than earlier than. In 2012, two judges of Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court docket have been sentenced to prolonged jail phrases for accepting a bribe of $70,000 from a personal firm for “favorable consideration of its declare.”
Olga Didenko, an area professional in anti-corruption efforts, highlighted that a lot of the corruption within the judiciary goes underneath the radar, though the bribes are vital, and the issue appears all-encompassing all through the sector:
Corruption within the judicial system stays an issue and severely undermines efforts to strengthen the independence of the judiciary. We should always keep in mind that the variety of instances recognized and judges convicted for corruption is far decrease than, for instance, convicted staff of state our bodies of regulation enforcement businesses. Nonetheless, the bribes are bigger, as is the injury to society in such instances of corruption within the judicial system. In 2023, three judges have been convicted of accepting bribes for making favorable choices… However these are solely the recognized instances that reached court docket. In response to NGOs, corruption within the judicial system stays at a excessive stage.
The Anti-Corruption Agency is the physique accountable for investigating corruption in Kazakhstan. Though the company is finishing up a lot work to deal with the urgent points, its work can not succeed with out authorized reform. The 2 easiest methods to beat corruption within the judiciary are to increase the salaries of judges, whereas additionally eradicating advantages from their employment situations. The independence of judges is carefully associated to their revenue, and the scale of their salaries ought to be public and controlled by regulation. Sadly, in Kazakhstan, judges’ salaries usually are not public.
In response to the Kyiv Recommendations, a set of pointers and suggestions advising on methods to uphold independence of the judiciary in Jap Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, it’s advisable to take away advantages (equivalent to bonuses and different privileges) for judges and exchange these with greater salaries that make sure the judges a way of life that displays the extent of accountability of their occupation, in an effort to struggle the chance of corruption within the sector.
If these urgent points usually are not handled, rule of regulation in Kazakhstan will proceed to be underneath risk, and the scenario is unlikely to enhance.
