The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office said on July 2 that it plans to change the charge against two Kazakh men from attempted murder to murder after an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government, journalist Aidos Sadyqov died in hospital hours earlier after being shot in Kyiv on June 18.
"Currently, law enforcement agencies are working on changing the previous charge of attempted murder into a charge of premeditated murder and group conspiracy to commit murder," the office said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, Sadyqov's wife Natalya Sadyqova wrote on Facebook that her husband, who had been hospitalized in intensive care since the shooting two weeks ago, died following complications.
Sadyqov, who had gained a wide following on social media among disaffected Kazakhs, moved to Kyiv in 2014 along with his family after Kazakh authorities launched a slander investigation into Natalya Sadyqova, a journalist for the independent Respublika newspaper.
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Kazakh Activist Dies Of Gunshot Wounds In Kyiv Hospital
He was shot on June 18 as he sat in his car, outside his apartment building. Natalya, who was in the car at the time, was unharmed.
“For 13 days Aidos fought for his life in the intensive care unit, but a miracle did not happen,” she wrote.
“His death is on the conscience of Toqaev,” she said, referring to the current Kazakh president, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.
A day after the shooting, Ukrainian police identified two Kazakh men, Meiram Qarataev and Altai Zhaqanbaev, as the attackers, saying they entered Ukraine from Poland and fled to Moldova right after the incident.
On June 22, Kazakh authorities said they arrested Zhaqanbaev after he turned himself in, and are working on establishing Qarataev's whereabouts.
On June 25, Ukrainian prosecutors said they were seeking the extradition of the two men from Kazakhstan, and had filed a warrant with the international police agency, Interpol.
On June 27, the chairman of the Kazakh parliament's upper chamber, Maulen Ashimbaev, reiterated an earlier statement by Toqaev's spokesman Berik Uali, saying that Kazakhstan was ready to cooperate with Ukrainian authorities.
However, Ashimbaev told reporters that his country will not extradite Zhaqanbaev to Ukraine, saying that according to Kazakh law, citizens of that country cannot be extradited to other states.
Kazakhstan has been criticized for putting pressure on independent media and government critics for years.
On July 2, an independent Kazakh political analyst, Dimash Alzhanov, said he was threatened by two unknown men when he entered the corridor of his apartment block in Almaty the previous night.
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Kazakh Authorities Arrest Suspect In Connection With Journalist's Shooting In Kyiv
According to Alzhanov, one of the men asked him if he was Dimash and made threatening movements toward him before the two left the site.
Alzhanov, who has been known for his analytical comments on the Kazakh government's performance, the situation in Central Asia, Russia, and Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, said he filed a complaint with police.
Rights watchdogs have criticized the authorities in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic for persecuting dissent.
Kazakhstan was ruled by authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev from its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 until current President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev succeeded him in 2019.
Over the past three decades, several opposition figures have been killed and many jailed or forced to flee the country.
Toqaev, who broadened his powers after Nazarbaev and his family left the oil-rich country's political scene following the deadly, unprecedented anti-government protests in January 2022, has promised political reforms and more freedoms for citizens.
However, many in Kazakhstan consider the reforms announced by Toqaev to be cosmetic, as a crackdown on dissent has continued even after the president announced his "New Kazakhstan" program.