Kuat Nugymarov

NAME	Kuat Kugymarov
DOB	27 years oldKazakhstan, Almaty
Place of residence	Kazakhstan, Almaty
Location of Incident	Kazakhstan, Almaty
Citizenship	Kazakhstan
Applicant	Kymbat Nugymarov Aiguel Raven
Kinship	Brother Mother
Citizenship	Kazakhstan

Security forces killed 27-year-old Kuat Nugymarov during the shooting and subsequent mass brutal torture of peaceful protesters and citizens in early January 2022. Kuat, a participant in a peaceful protest, was found dead in the morgue on January 12, 2022. There was no living place on the guy’s body – all the teeth were knocked out, the jaw was broken, and the neck was all red. Also, there was a gaping bullet hole on the left side of Kuat’s body.

Kuat’s brother and mother, Kymbat Nugymarov and Aigul Rayeva gave their testimonies to the Tamshy Social And Charitable Foundation about what happened to their brother and son. And also, Kymbat witnessed the terrible murder of an unknown guy who was also looking for his missing relative in the morgue.

“On January 6, 2022, my mother asked me to find and bring my brother in the morning. That day, gas stations were not working, and it was difficult to find gasoline. I was late because of that. At about 6 p.m., my brother called me. He said his feet were wet and needed socks and shoes. I asked where he was; he said he was at the rally. I asked how many people there were. He replied that about 500 people were in the square. I took his shoes and socks and arrived at the square. Before reaching the square, I parked the car on Zheltoksan Street, below Satpayev. I called my brother; he came to me with a friend. They got in the car, and my brother changed his socks and shoes. I wanted to take my brother; I wanted to trick him out of there. While we were talking, shooting began in the square. Grenade explosions and machine-gun bursts could be heard from the side of Nazarbayev Street. Of the 500 people in the square, many began to run down the city.

My brother, at this point, broke free and ran to the square. He called his friend, but the friend was frightened and stayed. I ran after my brother to get him back. About a hundred protesters remained on the square. They shouted to each other, “Don’t run away! Don’t run away!” Two guys were holding the flags of Kazakhstan. From the side of Nazarbayev Street, the military threw stun grenades, and at that time, armored military jeeps with soldiers arrived from behind. They immediately began to shoot at the protesters to kill them. I ran away at that point. And those, about 100 guys stayed. They were still screaming, “Don’t run away! Don’t run away!” My brother has since disappeared.

On January 8, 2022, at about 11:12 p.m., I arrived at the morgue. 20-25 people were standing near the morgue. They were adults, women. Someone was looking for their children, someone else. I arrived and stood at the entrance, waiting. Finally, two people were launched to identify the bodies.

At that moment, gunfire began behind us. One guy was sitting on the sidewalk. His hands were raised up; he was not allowed to get up. If he tried to get up, he was shot. He shouted: “I am a Kazakh! I am Kazakh!”. All those waiting at the entrance were forced to pass above Kazybek Bi Street. Two soldiers jumped over the morgue’s gates, handcuffed the guy, twisted him, and began to lead. We started filming it on our phones. But the soldiers opened fire in our direction into the sky. They ordered us to put the phones away. They gave commands in Kazakh and Russian languages. Soldiers in black led the guy into the morgue grounds. We came back to the morgue gate. The shooting seemed to stop.

The military and the police arrived. We were all standing there. Finally, the eldest of them [a law enforcement officer] told us to go home that “there will be no more identifications today.” But people were looking for their children, I was looking for my brother, we all wanted to go to the morgue, and we stood there, we didn’t disperse.

Half an hour later, the senior [law enforcement officer] instructed the soldiers to launch two people at a time. I was just first in line and went inside. They took my phone and let me in. That eldest would meet people from the inside out and show us where to look. It was the central morgue of Almaty on the corner of Kazybek bi [117B] and Baitursynov streets.

Right at the entrance to the morgue lay the body of a man in black clothes; we did not immediately notice him, and the three of us had to step over it. I was looking for my brother. There were a lot of guys killed there. Approximately 70 people were lying without clothes. There was an unbearable smell in the morgue; I was trying to breathe through the twist. Finally, the elder told me not to fear the dead but fearful of the living.

Among the dead, I saw the guy’s body, who had been taken to the morgue by the soldiers. He wasn’t injured when they started him. The soldiers shot him dead in the morgue. They shot him in the head. When we first walked in, quite a bit of blood flowed out of his head. But as we walked out of the morgue, the bloodstream from his head was longer than one meter. It was still flowing.

I couldn’t stand it and said to the elder: “Bro, this guy was just alive; why did you shoot him?” “We don’t have time to sort it out,” he replied to me and loudly ordered morgue staff to clean up his body. Two people removed his body. Red blood remained on the floor.

After that, we were taken outside. Under a canopy, there were also many corpses of dead guys on the street. They were lying in their clothes. I looked for my brother among them. And then he came out of the morgue. That was January 8, 2022. I never found my brother that day.

On January 12, 2022, I found my brother in the same morgue. He looked terrible; I could barely identify him. He cut his hair shortly before the new year. But, I recognized him by his hairstyle. He had no teeth in his mouth. The neck was red. His jaw was broken. He didn’t even have time to swell. If he were alive, his face would be swollen. My brother was beaten to death. My brother had a wound to his left side. But, he died because he was finished off with a machine gun. He died of beatings. They broke his jaw, knocked out his teeth, and left nothing intact. We took my brother’s body to the village and buried it.”

Those responsible for the shooting have not yet been brought to justice; the authorities have not yet published the names of all those killed during the days of peaceful protests and after (officially 227 people). There is no transparent and objective investigation, so an international independent investigation is needed.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4961784557233950