By Olzhas Auyezov and Mariya Gordeyeva
ALMATY (Reuters) - The trial of a former government minister charged with beating his wife to death has gripped public attention in Kazakhstan, and some see it as a litmus test of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's promise to build a fairer, more equitable society.
Shocking footage played in the courtroom this week showed Kuandyk Bishimbayev, a former economy minister, repeatedly kicking and punching a slender young woman wearing only a coat and boots, and dragging her around by her hair.
The woman, 31-year-old Saltanat Nukenova, was found dead last November in a restaurant owned by a relative of her husband, where the couple had spent almost a whole day and the previous night. She had been unconscious for hours.
According to a coroner's report, Nukenova died from brain trauma. One of her nasal bones was broken and there were multiple bruises on her face, head, arms and hands.
Bishimbayev, 43, is charged with torture and murder with extreme violence and faces up to 20 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty and has argued in court that Nukenova died from self-sustained injuries.
Many Kazakhs see Bishimbayev as a typical member of the country's wealthy ruling elite and fear that, even if found guilty, he may somehow escape proper punishment - as was the case with a previous conviction.
Bishimbayev was arrested in 2017 on bribery charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but walked free after less than three years behind bars thanks to an amnesty and parole.
Kazakhstan, an oil-rich nation of 20 million people, has seen numerous other examples of members of the elite getting away with various crimes, a trend that has fed public distrust of the legal system.
PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY
However Tokayev, who replaced veteran Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev five years ago, said he wanted to build a fairer society including improved rights for women, in what remains a socially conservative, patriarchal country.
"Millions of Kazakh citizens are the unofficial jurors in this trial," said gender issues activist Aida Alzhanova.
"The 10 officially appointed jurors might deliver the verdict (on Bishimbayev) but civil society will deliver the verdict on the court system, the legislation and its application."
Another reason why many Kazakhs are closely following the trial, which is being broadcast online, is the fact that domestic violence, and violence against women in general, were already hot button issues before the murder.
Government data shows that one in six Kazakh women has experienced violence by a male partner.
Last month state television axed a talk show after its hosts prompted public outrage by inviting to their studio the husband of a woman who had only recently left him after enduring beatings for years and suffering a broken arm.
The host tried to persuade the weeping woman to reconcile with her husband, an approach criticised by rights activists who are trying to combat traditional sexist views about women.
In 2017 Kazakhstan decriminalised domestic violence, making it punishable mainly by fines, a move critics say has only discouraged women from lower-income families from reporting it.
A bill reversing that move is now before parliament.
"Making domestic violence a criminal offence is what we have been promoting for many years," says Zulfiya Baisakova, head of the Union of Crisis Centres, a non-governmental organisation.
An online petition demanding such reforms has been widely circulated online, along with photographs and videos from the Bishimbayev trial.
(Additional reporting by Tamara Vaal in Astana; Editing by Gareth Jones)
