Many view the trial of a former minister from Kazakhstan who is accused of killing his wife by beating her to death as a referendum on President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s pledge to create a more just, civilised and a society that is equal.
The 31-year-old Saltanat Nukenova was discovered dead in November of last year in a restaurant that her husband Kuandyk Bishimbayev’s relative owned. The couple had spent the previous evening and nearly the entire day there. She had spent hours unconscious.

In a more recent hearing of the case, the court was shown a very comprehensive footage of 44-year-old Kuandyk Bishimbayev, a former economy minister. He was seen beating his wife Saltanat Nukenova. The surveillance footage shows Bishimbayev mercilessly kicking and punching the 31-year-old woman in the restaurant owned by his family members. Probably, she died after that beating and lay there for hours afterwards.

During the trial, the prosecutor stated that Bishimbayev “broke down the door, pulled her out, and continued beating her” when she attempted to flee by hiding in the bathroom.

A coroner’s report stated that Saltanat’s cause of death was brain trauma. She had several bruises on her face, head, arms, and hands in addition to a broken nasal bone.