President says one law for all after ex-minister’s arrest over wife’s death

President Kasymzhomart Tokayev on Wednesday ordered the Interior Ministry to ensure “special” oversight over the probe into an ex-economy minister’s suspected murder of his wife.

“Everyone is equal before the law. A just society means citizens’ solidarity in strengthening law and order,” Tokayev told a meeting with law-enforcement officials.

Former national economy minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev was arrested last week in a restaurant in Astana following “a dispute” with his wife that led to her death at the scene, according to the police.

The police have also opened cases against at least two more people on suspicion of failing to prevent and report a crime.

According to the leaked witness accounts, after beating his wife Bishimbayev ordered the restaurant, which is owned by his mother, to be closed, and the CCTV footage from that evening to be erased. He and his wife, who was severely injured but still remained alive for some time, stayed inside the closed restaurant until the next evening.

In 2018 Bishimbayev was sentenced to ten years in jail for taking a bribe but was freed the next year thanks to his connections.

Tokayev on Wednesday urged “resolute prevention of any violence against women and children” and the creation of “an atmosphere of absolute intolerance” towards domestic violence.

State Secretary Yerlan Karin also called for civic engagement to prevent domestic abuse.

He said, in a Telegram post, that the problem could not be solved just by toughening the law, “but also through reviewing our society’s moral values and behaviour patterns”.

“As long as there is a permissive attitude towards such actions, it is hard to expect any effect from the measures being taken by the government,” Karin said.

In May the government toughened the laws on domestic violence, allowing cases to be opened without a victim’s own report, and making beating resulting in serious bodily harm punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

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

Lawyer Zhanna Urazbakhova says violence against women and children “happens all the time”, but it does not get public attention “simply because it does not always involve high-profile figures”.

“It happens at schools, in restaurants and cinemas, on the streets and at home,” she said in an interview on Tuesday. “It happens everywhere and all the time.”

“There are hundreds of other cases where women were killed by their husbands in a court room, burned to death in their own houses, or killed in their sleep,” Urazbakhova said.

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