United Nations says about 400 girls die from home violence in Kazakhstan annually, however many instances go unreported.
Warning: This text incorporates particulars of violent home abuse that some might discover upsetting.
Kazakhstan’s prime courtroom has sentenced a former economic system minister to 24 years in jail for torturing and murdering his spouse, following a broadly watched trial that many noticed as a take a look at of the president’s promise to strengthen girls’s rights.
Kuandyk Bishimbayev, 44, was discovered responsible and sentenced by the Supreme Courtroom on Monday.
His trial, which has been broadcast dwell over the previous seven weeks, has been seen as an try by authorities to ship a message that members of the elite are now not above the regulation.
Surveillance footage performed in the course of the trial confirmed Bishimbayev repeatedly punching and kicking his spouse, 31-year-old Saltanat Nukenova, and dragging her by her hair, close to bare, into the VIP room of a restaurant owned by his household within the nation’s largest metropolis, Almaty.
As she lay dying within the suite with no safety cameras coated in her blood, Bishimbayev phoned a fortune teller, who assured him his spouse could be superb. When an ambulance lastly arrived 12 hours later, Nukenova was pronounced lifeless on the scene.
Movies have been additionally discovered on Bishimbayev’s cell phone by which he insulted and humiliated the visibly bruised and bloodied Nukenova within the hours earlier than she misplaced consciousness on the morning of November 9 final yr.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has mentioned he needs to construct a fairer society together with improved rights for ladies.
The case has helped rally public assist behind a regulation criminalising home violence, which parliament handed final month.
Days after Nukenova’s dying, her family launched a web based petition urging authorities to cross “Saltanat’s Legislation” to bolster safety for these prone to home violence. When the trial started, greater than 5,000 Kazakhs wrote to senators urging for more durable legal guidelines on abuse, in response to native media stories.
Authorities information present that one in six girls within the Central Asian nation has skilled violence by a male associate.
In keeping with the United Nations, about 400 girls die from home abuse within the nation annually. These figures may very well be larger as many instances go unreported.
Through the trial, Bishimbayev admitted to beating his spouse, however mentioned a few of her accidents have been self-inflicted. He denied torturing or planning to homicide her.
He served because the oil-rich nation’s economic system minister from Could to December 2016.
Bishimbayev was convicted of bribery in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in jail, however walked free after lower than three years due to an amnesty and parole.
