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| Ruslan Kulekbaev in an Almaty courtroom on October 25, 2016 |
A Kazakh court has sentenced a man to death on terrorism charges.
The court in Kazakhstan's largest city of Almaty found Ruslan Kulekbaev, 26, guilty of murder, attempted murder, and terrorism on November 2.
Five other defendants were sentenced to prison terms of between three and 10 1/2 years.
Kulekbaev was arrested in July after he opened fire at the offices of the Almaty police department and National Security Committee, killing six people, including a retired police officer, a border-guard officer, and four police officers.
Three more police officers wounded in the attacks later died in the hospital.
Authorities have said Kulekbaev had been exposed to radical Islam during previous stints in prison for armed robbery and other crimes.
President Nursultan Nazarbaev introduced a moratorium on capital punishment in 2003 and the death penalty was officially abolished in 2007, but the country's constitution makes an exception in cases of terrorist acts.
Source: RFE, November 2, 2016
Kazakh man sentenced to death for police, prostitute shooting
ALMATY: A Kazakh man was sentenced to death on Wednesday for killing 10 people, mostly policemen, in a July shooting spree, to avenge what he called the suffering of Muslims at the hands of police.
Authorities at the time described Ruslan Kulekbayev's attack on a police station and security office in Kazakhstan's financial capital Almaty as an Islamist assault.
The 26-year-old pleaded guilty to the shooting, and admitted killing a woman working as a prostitute the night before, saying he saw her occupation as sinful.
His state-appointed lawyer told local news website Vlast.kz he would not appeal - though the Central Asian nation has had a moratorium on executions since 2003, meaning death sentences are usually commuted to life imprisonment.
A month before Kulekbayev's attacks, two dozen men attacked two firearms stores and a National Guard facility in the city of Aktobe, killing seven people.
The oil-rich former Soviet republic is officially secular, though most of its population is Muslim.
More conservative Salafist forms of the religion have become increasingly popular since the country became independent in 1991. Authorities say hundreds of Kazakhs have also joined Islamic State in recent years.
Source: Reuters, November 2, 2016
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