A former Minister of Kazakhstan has been charged with torture and murder with extreme violence after he was caught on camera dragging his wife by her hair and then repeatedly beating and punching her at a family-owned restaurant for eight hours in November 2023. His 31-year-old wife succumbed to brain trauma hours after the violent attack.
According to the conclusion of the investigation, Bishimbayev physically assaulted Nukenova for more than eight hours at the restaurant in Almaty owned by his family, and the police were not informed.
During the trial at the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan, CCTV footage of the attack was played. This is the first trial to be streamed online in Kazakhstan, reports Mirror online.
A Reuters news agency report said Bishimbayev and Nukenova had spent almost a whole day and the previous night before the latter was found unconscious at the restaurant. An ambulance arrived 12 hours after the incident, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
A coroner's report revealed brain trauma as the cause of Nukenova's death. As a result of the attack, one of her nasal bones was broken and there were multiple bruises on her face, head, arms and hands.
The Central Asian nation, which still largely remains a patriarchal society, decriminalised domestic violence in 2017, making it punishable mainly by fines.
