The murder trial of Kazakhstan’s former economics minister and businessman Kuandyk Bishimbayev, who has been accused of beating his wife to death, has grabbed the attention of the entire nation, prompting demands for new laws to curb domestic violence.
Recently, a shocking 8-hour-long CCTV video showing Bishimbayev beating his wife, Saltanat Nukenova, 31, at a hotel owned by one of his family members was submitted at the court.
The trial of the 44-year-old is the first in the country to ever be streamed online, making it readily accessible to the 19 million people in Kazakhstan.
Disturbing CCTV footage shows the defendant, a father of four, dragging his wife by her hair, and then punching and kicking her.
Hours after it was recorded, she died of brain trauma.
He was then seen pulling her by the hair into a different room, devoid of cameras.
As she attempted to flee by seeking refuge in the bathroom, Bishimbayev forcefully broke down the door, dragged her, and continued assaulting her, the prosecutor said during the trial.
Following her removal from the bathroom, he grabbed her by the throat, causing her to lose consciousness, the prosecutor further detailed.
Subsequently, as she lay on the ground, her body drenched in blood, Bishimbayev contacted a fortune-teller for reassurance about his wife’s condition. Despite her critical state, emergency services only arrived twelve hours later, and upon their assessment, medical personnel pronounced her dead at the scene.
WHAT IS THE CASE
The trial of businessman Kuandyk Bishimbayev, Kazakhstan’s former economy minister, in the death of his wife, Saltanat Nukenova, has touched a nerve in the Central Asian country. Tens of thousands of people have signed petitions calling for harsher penalties for domestic violence.
On April 11, senators approved a bill toughening spousal abuse laws, and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed it four days later. It’s been dubbed “Saltanat’s Law” in her honor.
Kazakhs are riveted by Bishimbayev’s trial, the first in the country of over 19 million people to be streamed online, and debates about it are dominating social media. Many see it as a moment of truth for Tokayev’s promises of reforms and making officials accountable.
The 44-year-old Bishimbayev, once seen as a fresh, Western-educated face of Kazakhstan’s government under former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, was jailed for bribery in 2018 before being pardoned less than two years into his 10-year sentence.
Nukenova, 31, was found dead in November in a restaurant owned by one of her husband’s relatives. Bishimbayev, who was charged with torturing and killing her, for weeks maintained his innocence but admitted Wednesday in court that he had beaten her and “unintentionally” caused her death.
His lawyers initially disputed medical evidence indicating Nukenova died from repeated blows to the head. They also portrayed her as prone to jealousy and violence, although no video from the restaurant’s security cameras that was played in court has shown her attacking Bishimbayev.
Aitbek Amangeldy, Nukenova’s elder brother and a key prosecution witness, told The Associated Press that he had no doubt his sister’s tragic fate has shifted attitudes about domestic violence.
(With inputs from AP)
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