In Kazakhstan, the former minister is judged for the murder of a wife committed with particular cruelty

He claims that during a quarrel she fell and hit her head. According to the investigation, he beat her and strangled her

In Astana, there is a trial of the former Minister of the National Economy of Kazakhstan Kuandyk Bishimbaev, who is accused of the murder of his wife Saltanat Nukenova during a quarrel in a restaurant. Bishimbaev claims that they found out a relationship for several hours and cursed in the restaurant VIP. Saltanate, according to him, hit her head on the tiled floor in the toilet, as well as “fought knees” on the wall. Then, as Bishimbaev says, she lay down and fell asleep. In the morning, he tried several times to wake her up and only after eight hours he noticed that she had no pulse, and the body was cold. When an ambulance arrived, the Saltanate was already dead. The investigation claims that Bishimbaev beat and strangled it during a quarrel, and also asked the owner of the restaurant, his brother, to remove the notes from the surveillance cameras and take his wife’s phone to secure Alibi. Bishimbaev does not find himself guilty of intentional murder. "Medusa" says what is known about this case.

Former Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan Kuandyk Bishimbaev was detained in November 2023. The court in his case began in March. At the first meeting, the charge was underway, at the second - the brother of the murdered Saltanat Nukenova, and then Bimimbaev himself began to state his version.

On the evening of November 8, Saltanat, along with her friend, went to the concert of Dima Bilan, who was held in the central concert hall "Kazakhstan". According to Bishimbaev, his wife wanted him to go there with her and he. After the concert, he, together with Saltanat, went to the Bau restaurant, where they began to quarrel.

According to investigators, in the lobby of the restaurant, Bishimbaev inflicted Saltanate “A series of crushing blows” with fists on the head. She fell to the floor, after which he began to beat her with his feet. Trying to be saved, the Saltanate took refuge in one of the restaurant VIP, but Bishimbaev knocked out the door and beat it again. “Bishimbaev grabbed Nukenov by the throat and began to strangle, from which the latter lost consciousness and died on the spot,” quoted the words of the state prosecutor Zakon.kz.

The publication of Kursiv reports, in turn, with reference to the charge that after Bishimbaev began to strangle the Saltanate, she lost consciousness, but then came to her senses, after which he struck her head and “stopped when he was convinced that Nukenova was unconscious and does not guess signs of life.” The examination showed that the cause of death, the Saltanate was a closed traumatic brain injury.

At the meeting, Bishimbaev said that when they were in a VIP-kabinka, both by this moment had already drank quite a lot-the Saltanate began to remove all the jewelry that he gave to her and threw them into the toilet. He went out to smoke, and returning, tried to go to the toilet, but found that his wife locked himself from the inside. She opened the door only after he began to beat her with his fists.

In the toilet, according to Bishimbaev, the wife began to scream and rushed at him, tearing a shirt. He pushed her, she hit the wall, and then face the toilet. After that, Bishimbaev claims, the Saltanate tried to rise, but fell again and "again hit the tiled floor with her face," as well as "fought with her knees on the floor, on the wall." Then Saltanat came to her senses, and they, according to Bishimbaev, went down to the underground parking and got into the car to go home, but did not leave and climbed into the restaurant again.

At that moment, as the former minister says, his wife again began to insult him, and he gave her four slaps. She fell. “I had a condition - either she specially does it, or she really is bad. When she fell, I kicked her three or four times on her thigh, on the buttock, I clearly realized that no life body should ... I kicked it four times: “Get up, Che you”. I was angry and began to raise her by the hair, ”Bishimbaev said in court.

At the meeting on April 3, several videos from surveillance cameras in the restaurant were shown in the court. On the frames of one of them, Bishkhabaev kicks his legs lying on the floor, and then lifts it by the hair and gives a slap in the face.

After that, Bishimbaev and his wife returned to the restaurant’s VIP rib, where the Saltanate first sat down and then lay on the sofa. Bishimbaev, as follows from his testimony, lay down nearby and fell asleep. About 10 in the morning he woke up. Saltanate, according to him, lay nearby. He called his cousin Bakhytzhan Baizhanov, the director of the gastro center in which the restaurant was located, and asked to come and take them home. Bishimbaev claims that when he tried to raise the Saltanate, she had "reflexes", she "moved her hands and controlled her body." But he could not wake her up and put it on the sofa again, and then he fell asleep. Waking up about 13 hours, he again tried to wake his wife, but to no avail.

After that, for several hours, Bishimbaev, as follows from his testimony, was engaged in his affairs: I asked Bayzhanov to dissolve the restaurant staff and delete video recordings from surveillance cameras, as well as take the Saltanate phone home, driving along the way to two more places. The investigation claims that Bishimbaev thus wanted to secure Alibi - he knew that his wife’s brother was tracking her geolocation. Bishimbaev himself says that he did not want his wife’s brother to find out where they were, "in order to avoid a new conflict." He, according to him, asked for video recording so that they would not flow into the network.

Saltanate all this time remained in the VIP rib. The last time Bishimbaev tried to wake her around 18:30. “I noticed that her face became cool. I began to feel her cheeks, they became cool, I realized that the temperature had changed, began to feel the body, it was the same, ”the former minister said in court. He asked his brother to call an ambulance. Arriving doctors tried to reanimate Saltanate, but she was already dead.

Bishimbaev and Nukenov met in August 2022, and in December, according to the prosecution, “played a wedding”, but officially did not register a marriage. A friend of Saltanat Linara Smagulova said that she had noticed bruises and abrasions on her before - Saltanat explained to her that she had a quarrel with her husband. Smagulova calls the relationship between Bishimbaev and Nukenova “complex” and says that Saltanat at some point left for her parents in Pavlodar, but her husband assured her that everything would change, asked for forgiveness, and she returned.

The accusation in the court stated that Bishimbaev was “obsessively jealous”, controlled all his wife’s phone calls, forbade her to work and “systematically applied physical violence for her.”

Bishimbaev himself said that he did not plead guilty of intentional murder with particular cruelty, but admitted that he was involved in her death. “Without our quarrel, without my actions that occurred between us that evening, there may have been nothing,” he added .

In the case, his brother Bayzhanov is taking place with Bishimbaev. The court is held with the participation of jury. If the murder with particular cruelty is proved, Bishimbaev is facing a life sentence.

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