A powerful politician, a psychopath and a heinous crime that changed the laws of a country

The high-profile murder case of a former government minister in Kazakhstan was watched on television by millions and highlighted the country’s domestic violence problem.

In a historic verdict, a once powerful politician was held responsible for his wife’s murder and a new law was enacted.

Now the question arises whether the other victims will get justice.

The facts told in court were horrifying.

The country’s former economy minister, Sultanat Nuguenova, was attacked and killed in November 2023, which was recorded, in part, by security cameras.

On the day of the murder, shortly after 07:15 local time, Kvantik Bishimbayev beat and kicked Saltanat and dragged him by the hair from a restaurant in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana.

It is not clear what happened in the next 12 hours.

Part of it was filmed on the former minister’s own mobile phone: images shown to the court, but not to the public.

Audio captures Bishimbaye Humiliating Saldana, he asks her to another man.

asked the court Bishimbayev called a psychic several timesHis wife lay unconscious in the restaurant’s VIP room, where there were no cameras.

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Finally, just before 8:00 p.m., they called an ambulance. The woman was already dead, and according to the autopsy, she had been dead for six to eight hours.

Forensic examination, detailed in court, It noted that Saldanot suffered brain injuries due to external injuries, bruises and contusions.

230 milliliters of blood pooled between his skull and the surface of his brain. There were signs of strangulation.

Bishimbayev’s cousin Bakhytzhan Baizhanov, director of the complex where the restaurant was located, was sentenced to four years in prison for concealing a crime.

During the interrogation, Bishimbayev asked to delete the footage from the surveillance cameras, he said.

On May 13, Astana Supreme Court Kvantik Bishimbayev, 44, was sentenced to 24 years in prison For the murder of 31-year-old Saltenat Nuguenova.

But still In Kazakhstan, where hundreds of women die at the hands of their partners every year, it is not easy to get punishment.

The UN reports that perpetrators are brought to justice in only one in four domestic violence cases in the country.

Many women are too afraid to report.

As Saltanat’s brother says, Kazakh women “They shouted before, but they never listened.

Until now.

Saltanat’s childhood was spent in Pavlodar, a northeastern city near Kazakhstan’s border with Russia.

After finishing school, he moved to the former capital, Almaty, where he lived for a while with his only elder brother, Aitbek Amangeldi.

“That time was priceless to our relationship,” Idbeck says, explaining how she and her sister developed a close relationship into adulthood.

Saltanat wore nuguenova Quantic was married less than a year after killing Bishimbayev.

He was arrested on bribery charges in 2017 and eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison.

During that time, Saltenaut worked as an astrologer, which her brother says began when her godmother gave her a book when she was nine.

“She helped women in all kinds of difficult situations, be it family relationships, marriage or children,” she explained, recalling her happy, smiling sister and her dreams of opening an astrology school.

“Long and Crazy” Love

In his testimony, Aitbek said Bishimbayev tried to arrange a meeting with Sultanat, who initially rejected the request.

He said they continued a “long and passionate love affair” and Bishimbayev managed to get Saltanat’s phone number.

Aitbek says that her sister showed her messages in which Bishimbayev asked her to meet and encouraged her not to believe everything that was written and said about him.

They got married a few months after that meeting. And it didn’t take long for the problems to start.

Saltenat shared photos of the injuries with her brother and tried to leave her husband on several occasions.

She said Bishimbayev was trying to isolate her and “forbid” her to work after Saltanat left the profession she loved.

As the judge told the court while sentencing Bishimbayev, this was a particularly brutal murder.

Yet Bishimbayev tried to downplay it. He admitted physically harming Sultanate leading to his death, but vehemently denied it was intentional.

He asked the jury to be “objective and fair”.

Meanwhile, Idbeck was asked by her lawyer if her sister wanted “male dominance” in Saltenaut relationships, or if she was dominant.

“Are you serious?” He replied.

A brave act

The tone of the question did not surprise Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Denis Krivoshev.

“The survivor can be accused of acting in a way that ‘provoked’ the perpetrator; she can be accused of destroying the family and disrespecting her husband or her parents and in-laws,” she told the BBC.

“It takes courage to report domestic violence, and there’s every reason to believe it’s vastly underreported.”

The United Nations estimates that about 400 Kazakh women die each year from domestic violence. By comparison, 70 women were killed in England and Wales (with three times the population) in the year to March 2023.

According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, calls to crisis centers for victims of domestic violence increased by 141.8% between 2018 and 2022.

However, Krivoshev says “there is still a high level of tolerance for domestic violence, but it is decreasing.”

But as details of Saltanat’s final hours were exposed to the nation via a live broadcast from the courtroom, the government was pressured to act.

Social media users took to sites like TikTok to talk about the case. And a petition signed by more than 150,000 people called for reform of domestic violence laws.

On April 15, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev A law was passed to toughen the punishment for domestic violence. After being acquitted in 2017.

The new “Saltenat Law” classifies it as a criminal offence; It was previously considered a civil offence. Now cases can be opened without the victim’s own complaint.

But the reality is that the law still falls far short of what is needed, says Dinara Smailova, founder of the NeMolchiKZ Foundation, which helps victims of domestic violence and rape.

For starters, if a woman doesn’t stay in hospital for at least 21 days, “damage is considered minor”. “Fractures, broken noses or jaws are considered minor health damage.”

Smailova founded her foundation in 2016 after seeing the response she got when she posted on social media about how she survived rape and sexual violence in her youth.

In a few days, she says, she received “hundreds of messages from women talking about the violence they experienced, how they were banned from speaking and how men went unpunished.”

His Public Trust “Eight years of scandalous cases of violence, with no response from the government, he added.

He no longer lives in Kazakhstan, where authorities have put him on a wanted list for spreading false information, violating privacy and fraud.

Ironically, his brother notes that it was stories like these that would have piqued Saldana’s compassion.

“She always fought for justice,” Aitbek says. “No matter what…she had a strong sense of justice. Every time she saw someone hurt and in need of protection, she was always there”.

And he believes the law doesn’t go far enough…yet. But it’s a start, showing people that even the most powerful must be held accountable.

The trial will show people that “in Kazakhstan, the law is the same for everyone and everyone is equal before the law in a trial,” he said.