Kuandyk Bishimbayev Murder Sentence Appeal Rejected

On June 26 an appeal court in Kazakhstan's capital Astana upheld the 24-year prison sentence for murder handed down to the country's former minister of national economy, Kuandyk Bishimbayev. On 13 May Bishimbayev, a minister in the government of Kazakhstan's first president Nursultan Nazarbayev, was found guilty of killing his common-law wife, Saltanat Nukenova, at a restaurant in Astana late last year. The appeal court ruling states: "The judicial board decides that the verdict of the Specialized Interdistrict Court on criminal cases of Astana from May 13, 2024, in respect of Kuandyk Bishimbayev, made with the participation of jurors, should be left unchanged." The owner of the restaurant where Nukenova was murdered, Bakhytzhan Baizhanov, was found guilty of harboring a particularly serious crime. Baizhanov was sentenced to four years in prison in a medium security penal institution. His sentence has also been upheld. During the trial, as public outrage over Nukenova’s killing simmered in Kazakhstan, president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a new law in April in line with OECD standards which tightens the penalties for domestic violence and provides more help for survivors. The legislation became widely-dubbed, “Saltanat’s Law.” Bishimbayev's lawyer, Nazken Kusainova, has commented that Bishimbayev intends to make further appeals to the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan and the Human Rights Committee.