A HEARTBROKEN MUM of a politician's dead wife could not contain her emotions during the court hearing of a case that shocked Kazakhstan.
Saltanat Nukenova, 31, died of brain trauma after an 8-hour brutal attack by her husband Kuandyk Bishimbayev, 44.
Kazakhstan's former economy minister was charged with torturing and killing his wife despite attempts to maintain his innocence for a number of weeks.
Bishimbayev had previously been jailed for bribery in 2018, although he spent less than two years of his ten-year sentence in prison before he was pardoned.
He eventually admitted to beating his wife and "unintentionally" causing her death in court last month.
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He described the excruciating details of the assault but added: "I was clearly aware that no vital organ should [be hurt]."
The ex-minister continued to deny guilt in premeditated murder, saying: "The only thing I want to inform you is that there was no intention, no particular cruelty in this."
During his testimony, the grief-stricken mother of Nukenova screamed out: "You were beating her to death for several hours!
"I didn't see my daughter, I didn't bury her, I didn't see her face.
"How did you beat her without particular cruelty?"
On the evening of November 8, 2023 the politician quarrelled with his wife in the Bau restaurant in Astana which belongs to his relatives.
The disturbing CCTV footage showed the couple engaging in conversation before Bishimbayev, a father-of-four, grabbed his wife by the hair and dragged her out of the shot.
According to Nukenova's mother, she was tortured for eight hours in one of the VIP booths where there are no security cameras.
The next day, Bishimbayev left his wife lying in the establishment while he went out on business.
He called an ambulance only in the evening when he noticed that her body was cold - at which point, Nukenova had been dead for 6-8 hours.
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The medical expertise revealed that the victim died slowly in agony.
According to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, restaurant staff were forbidden to call emergency services.
An instruction was also given to erase CCTV footage under the pretext of technical failure.
In court, the politician stated that his wife allegedly fell face down on the toilet, hitting her head on the floor tiles in a drunken state.
But the medical examination revealed that Nukenova did not have a large amount of alcohol in her body.
His lawyers also made attempts to portray Bishimbayev's wife as prone to jealousy and violence.
This was despite there being no video from the restaurant's security cameras played in court that showed her attacking Bishimbayev.
In addition, the woman's neck had traces of strangulation and her body had many scrapes and bruises.
The court also found 12 videos, recorded by the former minister on his phone on the day of the horror ordeal, in which he can be heard insulting and cursing the victim.
The judge also released correspondence from Bishimbayev's phone where he messaged a fortune teller instead of an ambulance to check Nukenova's condition since she did not regain consciousness.
According to Nukenova's brother, Aitbek Amangeldy, his sister made eight attempts to leave the relationship but was blackmailed with intimate videos to stay.
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The trial is the first of its kind to ever be streamed online in Kazakhstan and made readily accessible to its 19 million people.
Nukenova's death has attracted the attention of the nation as a result, sparking calls for new legislation tackling domestic violence.
Approximately 400 women in Kazakhstan lose their lives to domestic violence each year, although many of these incidents go unreported, according to a 2018 UN Women-supported study.
Tens of thousands of people have signed petitions calling for new laws to hold those guilty of abuse to account.
Senators have since approved a bill which toughens spousal abuse laws - dubbed "Saltanat's Law".
Nukenova's brother, Aitbek Amangeldy, a key prosecution witness in the case, said he had no doubt his sister's tragic fate shifted attitudes about domestic violence in Kazakhstan.
"It changes people's minds when they see directly what it looks like when a person is tortured," he told the Associated Press.
During a court session on April 1, Bishimbayev apologised to the Nukenova's relatives for her death.
"It was always very difficult for me at first to realise her death," he said, as reported by UNN.
"I want to apologise. I don't expect forgiveness, but it's my responsibility. I realise this is an irreparable loss, and I am complicit in the circumstances."
Bishimbayev would then talk about his life with his wife for almost five hours, without getting to the episode of her death.
He then asked the court to postpone the hearing of this episode to the next session, referring to the fact that he was "tired of talking".
