Employer of men shot in Almaty may be held liable

The two employees of Travel Express company who were attacked yesterday in Almaty were transporting over 10 million tenge ($67 thousand) of the company money, Tengrinews reports citing the updated information released by the press-service of Almaty Interior Department. Initially it was reported that they were carrying $26 thousand. The company should bear a moral responsibility for the tragic accident, the press-service said. The company's employees who fell victims of the attack were not professional cash-in-transit guards and were not equipped as ones. “There are security companies that render professional collection services. The collectors have to be equipped with at least bulletproof vests, hardhats and firearms. While the victims only had a traumatic gun,” the press-service said. Bolat Abenov, ex-Almaty Public Safety Department and police major who now heads the security service of one of Kazakhstan’s biggest collection companies, shares this opinion. Kazakhstan legislation contains clear instructions for the types of services like cash transpiration, he said. “Speaking of collection, there are instructions of the Kazakhstan National Bank that is the controlling body in this sector. Collection should comply with certain conditions. An armored vehicle is a must and the persons escorting the money have to be equipped. They have to carry duty rifled-bore firearms. And they have to be provided with the individual protective equipment: bulletproof vests, hardhads and special shoes,” Abenov stressed. This case looks like the company arranged a transportation of a certain amount of money by its own employees, but in fact this is considered a collection service. “The company has to be brought to responsibility for the lack of the individual protective equipment and for using a common vehicle that does not comply with the safety rules. In fact, they were transporting the money at their own risk. Besides the legislation that regulates collection activities, there is a separate law on safeguarding activities. The functions are different there. A security company may transport cargoes. In this case the security personnel was supposed to escorted the company’s employees,” Abenov said. The tragic incident happened shortly after 9 a.m. yesterday when two employees of Travel Express company were attacked at the crossing of Satpayev and Zheltoksan streets in Almaty while transporting around $26,000 of the company's money. One of them was shot dead, the other one was wounded. Initially it was considered that the attack was a robbery that went back, but today the police has confirmed that none of the money was stolen. The wounded man had a surgery in Almaty hospital yesterday. Two bullets were removed during the surgery. He is still in the intensive care unit in a heavy condition. An investigation group of the most experience police officers was formed in Almaty Interior Department. The police is searching for the attackers. No arrests have been made so far, but things are expected to move forward with the surveillance video now available to the police . By Assemgul Kassenova