Kazakhstan's authorities have unexpectedly allowed an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the birth of the late opposition politician Zamanbek Nurqadilov, an outspoken critic of the Central Asian nation's former president, Nursultan Nazarbaev.
On January 14, politicians, public figures, lawmakers, and celebrities gathered for an event to commemorate Nurqadilov at a restaurant in central Almaty, the country's largest city. Special letters by President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev and the chairman of the Senate, Kazakh parliament's upper chamber, Maulen Ashimbaev, were read at the ceremony praising Nurqadilov's contribution to the building of Kazakh statehood.
Nurqadilov, was once mayor of Almaty and chairman of the Emergency Situations Agency before he turned into a fierce critic of Nazarbaev and his government in 2004. He was found dead with two bullets in his chest and one in his head at his home in Almaty in November 2005. Official investigators ruled the death was a suicide, sparking a public outcry at the time.
Toqaev's letter said a monument to Nurqadilov will be erected in his native Kegen district in the Almaty region, while one of local schools will be named after him and a plaque honoring him will be placed at the house in Almaty where he lived.
Nurqadilov's former associate, businessman Bolat Abilov, called the event commemorating Nurqadilov "a political, historical, and moral rehabilitation" of the politician, adding that all the Nazarbaev monuments across the nation must be demolished and memorials to honor Nurqadilov and other politicians and journalists who died amid suspicious circumstances must be built instead.
Nurqadilov’s death occurred around the same time as a series of deaths of opposition politicians and journalists.
Among them are the deaths of opposition leader and former Kazakh ambassador to Russia, Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, and his two associates, who were found shot dead near Almaty in February 2006, three months after Nurqadilov's death.
Both politicians were interviewed in July 2004 by prominent independent journalist Askhat Sharipzhanov, who was found later the same day as the interview beaten and unconscious with a fractured skull. He died three days later in hospital.
Police said Sharipzhanov had been hit by a car, but friends and colleagues said his injuries suggested he had been struck in the head and hands before being hit by a vehicle.
Sarsenbaiuly's killing was officially declared to have been motivated by personal enmity. A former chief of staff of the Kazakh parliament, Erzhan Otembaev, was convicted of ordering the slaying and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
However, in 2013, Otembaev's sentence was annulled after Kazakh authorities announced that the case had been sent for review based on newly obtained evidence they said indicated that Rakhat Aliev, Nazarbaev's former son-in-law, had ordered the killing.
Aliev, who was deputy chief of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee when the slaying took place and became an outspoken opponent of Nazarbaev in 2007, was in self-imposed exile in Europe at the time.
Aliev was later arrested by Austrian officials at the request of authorities in Kazakhstan, who accused him of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of two Kazakh bankers.
In February 2015, Aliev was found hanged in a Vienna jail.
Austrian officials ruled Aliev's death a suicide, but many in Kazakhstan believe he was murdered while in Austrian custody.