A court in Astana on May 13 sentenced former Economy Minister Quandyq Bishimbaev to 24 years in prison for the “violent beating” to death of his wife, Saltanat Nukenova, in November 2023 in a local restaurant. Bishimbaev’s cousin Baqytzhan Baizhanov was sentenced to four years in prison for not reporting the crime, which he witnessed in progress, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported.
Bishimbaev earlier said he had no intention of killing his 31-year-old wife. In his final statement on May 6 at his high-profile trial, Bishimbaev called on the jury to be “objective” in the face of what he called an ongoing campaign on social media that had been organized “to incite hatred toward me.”
“I had never wished Saltanat’s death. I had never expected such a result for her. I am guilty, but not of premeditated murder. I had all means to flee and escape the trial, but I did not do that. However, the investigation has been influenced by social networks and media…. Saltanat’s death was unintentional,” Bishimbaev said.
The case has attracted nationwide attention amid growing outrage over domestic violence in Kazakhstan, where one in six women say they have faced some form of physical violence at the hands of their male partner.
Amid the public outcry over the brutal death of Nukenova, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev publicly called on the Interior Ministry to take the case under its “special control” during the investigation. The 43-year-old Bishimbaev served as economy minister from May 2016 to late December the same year. Before that, he occupied different managerial posts in government agencies.
In 2018, Bishimbaev and 22 others faced a high-profile corruption trial that ended with Bishimbaev’s conviction on charges of bribery and embezzlement while leading a state-controlled holding company.
A court in Astana sentenced him to 10 years in prison, but Bishimbaev, who comes from an influential family, was granted an early release through a mass amnesty issued by the government. He had served only 18 months of his term.
