Kazakh man sentenced to 5 years for car theft has conviction overturned

Tengrinews.kz – The Cassation Court overturned the sentence of a Kazakh man who had previously been sentenced to five years for unlawfully taking a car. The man was released from custody.
According to the case materials, on October 23, 2024, the man took advantage of the fact that the driver had briefly stepped out of a Hyundai Elantra and got behind the wheel of someone else’s car. According to him, he did so at the driver’s request in order to move the car and clear the passage.
While the car was moving, it collided with two other vehicles.
The court of first instance found the man guilty of wrongfully taking possession of a vehicle without intent to steal and sentenced him to five years in prison. The appellate court upheld the decision.
Criminal cassation court overturns sentence
The convicted man appealed the decision. The Cassation Court concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove the key element of the crime — direct intent to unlawfully take the vehicle.

“There is no video recording of the incident, eyewitnesses to the vehicle’s movement have not been identified, and the accident diagram does not make it possible to determine the distance the car moved or the location of the collision,” the statement said.

The court also noted that the judicial acts indicated different amounts of damage caused.
As a result, the Cassation Court overturned the decisions of the lower courts and terminated the criminal case due to the absence of elements of a criminal offense.
The man was ordered to be released from custody immediately.