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The ex-minister smashed his wife to pieces in the nightclub.
Then he called a fortune teller who said she would survive – and sat down to eat.
When the ambulance arrived twelve hours later, the 31-year-old was dead on the pub floor.
The murder of Saltanat Nukenova, 31, and its aftermath have shaken and enchanted Kazakhstan.
The trial against her husband, the country’s former economy minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev, 43, is streamed four days a week between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. online and is watched by millions of people.
Started in the entrance
The brutal killing has also created a “storm against intimate partner violence” in the country where 400 women are killed by their partners or other family members each year, writes Al Jazeera.
The callous manner in which Nukenova was left to die has contributed to the enormous attention the murder has received.
It all took place on November 9 last year at the nightclub that the ex-minister and his family own in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana.
The assault began at the restaurant’s entrance.
Images from surveillance cameras, which have been played during the trial, show how the ex-minister pushes his wife up against the wall with his left hand towards her throat.
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The ex-minister was caught on film pushing his wife up against the wall.
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Dragged the wife on the floor
In his right hand he holds a cigarette.
He also punches her in the face, kicks her as she lies on the floor, and drags her by the hair.
The violence continued – and ended – in the nightclub’s VIP room. From there, there are no surveillance images because a co-accused relative of Bishimbayev ensured that these were deleted, writes The Moscow Times.
The ex-minister admits that he hit his wife, but says he did not want to kill her.
His defense in court is astounding.
When she lay lifeless on the floor in the VIP room, he called a fortune teller to inquire about his wife’s condition.
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The murder of Saltanat Nukenova, 31, has shaken Kazakhstan.
1 / 2Photo: AP
Ate when she died
When he was told that “she was going to be ok”, he felt reassured and chose not to call an ambulance.
Together with the co-accused relative, he then sat down at a table in the VIP room to eat while his wife lay lifeless and bloody on the floor next to them, writes The Moscow Times.
Only twelve hours after the assault began, she was taken care of by paramedics. Then she was dead.
The popular fury has been given further strength by the ex-minister’s lawyers portraying the murdered woman as “hysterical, unfaithful and provocative”, writes Al Jazeera.
Her brother Aitbek Amangeldy, who tried in vain to save his sister from the abusive husband during the marriage, is in court every day to defend her name and give her redress.
Nukenova’s family and friends have testified that they often saw her with bruises and scratch marks around her neck.
Kuandyk Bishimbayev faces life in prison if convicted of the murder.
1 / 4Photo: AP
“Changes everything”
The ex-minister forbade her to contact them and reviewed the contents of her phone.
Dinara Smailova, founder of a women’s rights organization in Kazakhstan, says this case changes everything in the country.
– It has become a storm and now the whole of Kazakhstan, and also the world, is involved, she says to Al Jazeera.
– We have worked with high-profile cases for many years and we have seen how people are afraid and ashamed to talk about violence in relationships. But from the very beginning, the victim’s relatives spoke openly about what happened.
If Kuandyk Bishimbayev is convicted of the murder, he will be sentenced to life in prison.
However, experts believe that the ex-minister can get away with a lighter sentence because the prosecutor is required to prove that he killed his wife “intentionally and with calculated cruelty”. writes The Moscow Times.
The ten jurors and the judge deliberate and decide the outcome together.
The case has created debate about violence against women in Kazakhstan.
1 / 4Photo: AP