100,000 tenge for eyelid surgery in a rented room, no licence, one eye blind: the Shymkent conviction under Article 322 and the prosecutor's reminder

In Kazakhstan the right to perform a medical procedure rests on a specialist certificate and a licence for medical activity, and the Committee of Medical and Pharmaceutical Control inspects providers suspected of operating without them. Aesthetic medicine has drawn particular attention: Kursiv reported in September 2026 that the Ministry of Health was tightening control over the sector after several high-profile cases. A 2026 conviction in Shymkent shows what an unlicensed procedure can cost a patient.

According to Kursiv, reporting on 3 June 2026 and citing hronika.kz, a 27-year-old Shymkent resident with no medical licence and no specialist certificate rented an office in a medical centre, offered cosmetology services and claimed to specialise in blepharoplasty. The patient was an acquaintance who had earlier had a successful earlobe lift from the same person and agreed to eyelid surgery for 100,000 tenge. The right eye was operated on without incident; after the left, she developed severe swelling and bleeding. She was told this was normal and would pass. When her sight did not return, ophthalmologists found serious damage, and she was left with atrophy of the optic nerve and no vision in that eye.

Kursiv reported that after the patient's complaint the regional department of the Committee of Medical and Pharmaceutical Control inspected the operator and confirmed there was neither licence nor certificate, and a criminal case followed. The defendant pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year and six months' imprisonment with a three-year ban on medical and pharmaceutical activity, enforcement deferred for a year because of two minor children, plus more than 369,000 tenge in material damages, 5 million tenge in moral damages and 2 million tenge in legal costs. On 17 September 2026 Kursiv, citing a Shymkent city prosecutor's office release on gov.kz, and Otyrar.kz reported the conviction under Part 2 of Article 322 of the Criminal Code, illegal medical activity causing grievous harm through negligence, with the same sentence. The reports differ on one point: Kursiv's June account described the defendant as a woman, while the September prosecutors' account and Otyrar described a man. Otyrar quoted prosecutor Dinmukhamed Zhumabayev of the Abai district office, who used the case to remind the public to check a provider's qualifications and licence before any procedure, especially surgery.

The mechanism is familiar: a room inside a real medical centre, a previous minor procedure that went well, and a client who trusted an acquaintance rather than a register. The sources do not say whether the centre checked its tenant's papers; what is clear is that the patient did not ask for a certificate before surgery, and that the address of a licensed clinic was no guarantee the person inside it was licensed.

For a student the lesson cuts two ways. Never let anyone operate on you, or inject you, on the strength of a rented room and a reputation; ask for the specialist certificate and the licence and check them with the regional health department before paying. And if you are a medical student or graduate, understand that performing procedures before you hold the certificate and licence is prosecuted in Kazakhstan under Article 322, not treated as practice.