ASTANA -- Kazakh tycoon Qairat Boranbaev, whose daughter is the widow of the grandson of former President Nursultan Nazarbaev, has been sentenced to eight years in prison on corruption charges.
A court in Astana's Saryarqa district sentenced Boranbaev and his two co-defendants on March 31 after finding them guilty of illegally obtaining property and embezzlement. The court also stripped Boranbaev of all state awards and ordered the confiscation of all his property and financial assets.
Boranbaev's co-defendants, businessmen Roman Nakhanov and Taiyr Zhanuzaq, were also each sentenced to eight years in prison. The trio had pleaded not guilty.
Boranbaev's daughter, Alima Boranbaeva, and Nazarbaev's grandson, Aisultan Nazarbaev, married in 2013. In September 2020, Aisultan Nazarbaev, who reportedly suffered from drug addiction and had run-ins with the law in the United Kingdom, died in London at the age of 29.
SEE ALSO: British Inquest Says Nazarbaev's Grandson Died Of Natural Causes, Cocaine AddictionBoranbaev, 56, was arrested after unprecedented anti-government protests in early January 2022 after which the Kazakh regime began to quietly target Nazarbaev, his family, and other allies -- many of whom held powerful or influential posts in government, security agencies, and profitable energy companies.
In September, another court in Astana sentenced Nazarbaev's nephew Qairat Satybaldy to six years in prison on corruption charges.
President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has taken a series of moves since the unrests to push Nazarbaev, who ruled the tightly controlled former Soviet republic with an iron fist for almost three decades, further into the background following his resignation in 2019.
Though he officially stepped down as president, Nazarbaev retained sweeping powers as the head of the country's powerful Security Council. He also enjoyed substantial powers by holding the title of "elbasy" -- the leader of the nation.
Even after Nazarbaev's resignation, many Kazakhs remained bitter over the oppression of his reign.
Those feelings came to a head in January 2022 when unprecedented, nationwide anti-government protests were sparked by a fuel-price hike.
The demonstrations unexpectedly exploded into deadly countrywide unrest over perceived corruption under the Nazarbaev regime and the cronyism that allowed his family and close friends to enrich themselves while ordinary citizens failed to share in the oil-rich country's wealth.
Toqaev subsequently stripped Nazarbaev of his Security Council role, taking it over himself. Since then, several of Nazarbaev’s relatives and allies have been pushed out of their positions or resigned.
Last month, Toqaev sign a law that canceled Nazarbaev's elbasy title.
Kazakh critics say Toqaev's initiatives were cosmetic and did not change the nature of the autocratic system in a country that has been plagued for years by rampant corruption and nepotism.