A high-profile murder trial in Kazakhstan boosts awareness of domestic violence

The CCTV footage shown at the domestic abuse trial was disturbing: The defendant is seen dragging his wife by her hair, and then punching and kicking her. Hours after it was recorded, she died of brain trauma.

The trial of businessman Kuandyk Bishimbayev, Kazakhstan’s former economy minister, in the death of his wife, Saltanat Nukenova, has touched a nerve in the Central Asian country. Tens of thousands of people have signed petitions calling for harsher penalties for domestic violence.

On April 11, senators approved a bill toughening spousal abuse laws, and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed it four days later. It’s been dubbed “Saltanat’s Law” in her honor.

Kazakhs are riveted by Bishimbayev’s trial, the first in the country of over 19 million people to be streamed online, and debates about it are dominating social media. Many see it as a moment of truth for Tokayev’s promises of reforms and making officials accountable.

The 44-year-old Bishimbayev, once seen as a fresh, Western-educated face of Kazakhstan’s government under former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, was jailed for bribery in 2018 before being pardoned less than two years into his 10-year sentence.

Nukenova, 31, was found dead in November in a restaurant owned by one of her husband’s relatives. Bishimbayev, who was charged with torturing and killing her, for weeks maintained his innocence but admitted Wednesday in court that he had beaten her and “unintentionally” caused her death.

His lawyers initially disputed medical evidence indicating Nukenova died from repeated blows to the head. They also portrayed her as prone to jealousy and violence, although no video from the restaurant’s security cameras that was played in court has shown her attacking