Ex-minister’s arrest over wife’s death: tale of corruption and women’s rights

Since Thursday night Kazakhstan has been reeling at the news of a former economy minister’s arrest on suspicion of killing his wife.

The suspect, Kuandyk Bishimbayev is a convicted bribe-taker, who became a government minister already in his thirties thanks to nepotism. Sentenced to ten years in jail in 2018, he was free a year later thanks to connections.

The case makes Kazakh society face two very familiar and serious problems — domestic violence against women and official corruption.

The government is being rightly criticised for not doing enough to address either. But the real problem is that both are behaviour patterns deeply entrenched in the public psyche.

There are reasons to be concerned that, if charged with murder, the former minister will get away with it lightly again thanks to corruption.

Bishimbayev’s arrest over his wife’s death was on Friday confirmed by deputy interior minister Saken Sarsenov and Astana police.

According to the police, the ex-minister’s wife “died of bodily wounds following a dispute between Bau restaurant visitors”. The woman, aged 31, died at the scene.

The ex-minister reportedly threatened to harm himself with a knife when the police tried to arrest him.

Bishimbayev, an ex-MP’s son, had become an aide to former president Nursultan Nazarbayev at the age of 29. A few years later he was appointed to head the national holding Bayterek. In 2016 he became national economy minister.

A year later he was arrested for bribery and embezzlement, and sentenced to 10 years in jail. The next year Bishimbayev was pardoned by a presidential decree and his term was reduced to four years. Soon after, a court granted him early release.

According to the police, over 125,000 cases of domestic violence were reported in Kazakhstan in 2022.

In May the government toughened the laws on domestic violence. Cases can now be opened without a victim’s own report. Beating is now punished by 10 days in jail (under the old law, the perpetrator could just get a warning). A repeated beating is now punished by up to 20 days in jail.

A repeated offence now automatically results in a court case. Earlier half of reported cases ended without conviction because of reconciliation between the two sides, usually because of family pressure on the victim.

Beating resulting in serious bodily harm is punishable by up to 10 years in jail, under the changed law.

The changes have been criticised by human rights groups as not doing enough to protect women from domestic abuse.

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