Former Kazakh Economy Minister Quandyq Bishimbaev, who is on trial for violently killing his 31-year-old wife in an Astana restaurant in November, says he had no intention of killing her.
In his final statement on May 6 at his high-profile trial in the Kazakh capital, which has been followed online by tens of millions in the Central Asian country and abroad since late March, 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.
Bishimbaev is charged with torture, murder with extreme violence, and repeatedly committing serious crimes. Bishimbaev's cousin, Baqytzhan Baizhanov, is a co-defendant, charged with failure to report a crime in progress.
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.
Bishimbaev's last statement at the trial coincided with the statement by Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov, who said on May 6 that adviser Saken Mamash to the Kazakh ambassador in the United Arab Emirates will be dismissed, after his wife complained to an online feminist group that her husband had regularly beat her during 10 years of their marriage.
"We urgently called that employee back to Kazakhstan. Law enforcement organs will take care of his case further. He will be fired from the ministry," Smadiyarov said.
Domestic violence has historically gone unpunished in the Central Asian nation, where it is not considered a stand-alone criminal offense. The Kazakh parliament has been dragging its feet for years on a bill that would criminalize domestic violence. Women account for about one-quarter of Kazakh lawmakers.
Amid the public outcry over the brutal death of Nukenova, Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev 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.
The Interior Ministry said earlier that more than 100,000 cases of domestic violence are officially registered each year, though the number of unregistered cases, analysts say, is likely much larger.
International rights watchdogs have urged Kazakh officials to curb the spreading of domestic violence for years.
According to the United Nations, about 400 women die in Kazakhstan as a result of domestic violence every year.