Ruslan Usabaev & Vadim Korober

NAME	Usabaev Ruslan
DOB	03/04/1996
Place of residence	Kazakhstan, Almaty
Location of Incident	Kazakhstan, Almaty
Citizenship	Kazakhstan
Applicant	Usabaeva Elmira
Kinship	Sister
Citizenship	Kazakhstan

NAME	Korober Vadim
DOB	06/11/1998
Place of residence	Kazakhstan Almaty
Location of Incident	Kazakhstan, Almaty
Citizenship	Kazakhstan
Applicant	Usabaeva Elmira
Kinship	Usabaev’s sister
Citizenship	Kazakhstan

A family that lost two loved ones during the riots in Almaty say they were shot while returning from work.

Didn’t have time to get home.

“On January 5, around 2 p.m., my brother called and said he was coming home with a friend. That was our last conversation. He did not return home after that. When we heard there was a riot and the phone was turned off, we started looking for him. We couldn’t find him by curfew. The next day, he was found in the morgue of the 12th hospital,” says Raihan, a relative of the deceased.

Ruslan Usabayev, 25, is a native of Kokshetau and grew up in Almaty. For several years he lived with relatives in Kaskelen. Two sisters and a father say that Ruslan worked and was going to get married this year. His mother died.

Ruslan’s relatives are against exhuming his grave.

The second victim, Vadim Korober, was 23 years old. His mother is Belarusian, his father is Kazakh, but he grew up without his parents. Ruslan and Vadim served together in the army. They have been friends since childhood. “They’ve always been together, grown up together,” says one relative.

“We don’t know where or how it happened. The bullets hit Ruslan in the chest in three places, Vadim in the left thigh. Both died in intensive care. On January 6, we received a medical death certificate and said goodbye to him on the 7th. Together they were buried in the cemetery in the village of Zhambyl,” said one of the relatives.

According to relatives, Ruslan and Vadim worked on construction sites in the upper part of Almaty. They left for work on the morning of January 5. The guys were sent home, saying that there would be no work because of the situation. But on the way home, they came under fire. The incident occurred in the city center. Morgue officers handed over the bodies after checking the phone data of the deceased and the data of their relatives.

On the morning of January 21, police informed relatives of young men buried on January 7 that their bodies would be exhumed. The family opposed it and told the regional prosecutor’s office not to open the graves. A law enforcement spokesman said the court’s decision had not yet been made.

“Unfortunately, we do not ask the state and law enforcement agencies about the cause of death of any of our brothers and barely console ourselves with the fact that not only our families suffered during the riots, it is even worse,” the relatives said.

Responsibility of those who “handed over the bodies of 24 people without examination”

Relatives of the deceased guys regret that they did not ask the doctor in the hospital about the injuries and bullets. It is not known whether the bodies of the deceased were handed over to their relatives by a simple act.

According to Yerlan Yerbolatuly’s lawyer, the investigator of the Kaskelen ROVD was instructed to exhume and examine 24 corpses taken from the morgue of Almaty without conducting a forensic medical examination.

We have twice appealed against the sanction issued by the investigative court on January 20-21. It was considered by the appeal board of the Almaty Regional Court. Suspended. The rest depends on the decision of the board. He was buried according to religious rites. Relatives are dissatisfied [with the decision on exhumation]. On the other hand, the procedure required an investigation to determine who fired what. As a rule, the law (Articles 225-228 of the Code of Criminal Procedure) obliges exhumation in cases where the crime has not been fully solved, and the necessary evidence is insufficient. If the sanctions come into force, we will have to comply with the requirements of the law. Then we will continue to monitor the investigation of the case, the evidence,” Yerbolatula’s lawyer said.

The cause of death was indicated in the certificate with the seal of the Institute of Forensic Expertise of the Center for Forensic Expertise in Almaty. However, the document does not contain the code of the international classification of diseases and the name of the doctor who signed it. It was not possible to contact the specialists of the institute and the morgue – they did not pick up the phone when calling the service numbers available publicly.. The editorial board will send a special request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health regarding the death of two young people and regarding compliance with the law on the transfer of bodies to relatives.

Requirement of the law

Correspondent of Orda.kz addressed the press secretary of the regional police department Abiltay Abenov. He said the exhumation was being carried out “not to offend anyone, but to enforce the law”.

“They died in Almaty. The bodies of some people were returned to relatives without forensic examination. Relatives ask who fired the shots and what exhumation is necessary to establish the cause of death,” a police spokesman said.

According to official information sent by the district department, citizens died in Almaty, the bodies were transferred to relatives without conducting the necessary examinations and buried in the Almaty region.

“As part of the criminal case, the Almaty Police Department sent an order to the regional police department to carry out an exhumation on the basis of Article 225 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as a result of which the decision on exhumation was sanctioned by the court. Based on the results of the examination, the cause of death will be established and a procedural decision will be made in accordance with the law,” the report said.

Photo of Ruslan and Vadim on social media. Photo: Instagram Source: https://orda.kz/rodstvenniki-rasstreljannyh-po-doroge-s-raboty-rebjat-vystupili-protiv-jeksgumacii/#part=2