Viral Bishimbayev Trial in Kazakhstan Ends With 24-Year Sentence

On May 13, former Minister of Economy of Kazakhstan Kuandyk Bishimbayev received 24 years in prison for murder and torture. On March 12, one day after Judge Aizhan Kulbaeva agreed to Bishimbayev’s request for a jury trial, Kazakhstan’s lower chamber of parliament, the Majilis, approved the first reading of a bill to revamp the country’s approach to juries. Lawyer Aigerim Kusainkyzy posed a rhetorical question to Vlast in an explainer on jury trials, “What are the chances that a fair and honest decision will be made behind the closed door of the deliberation room?” The U.S. State Department’s 2022 report on human rights in Kazakhstan noted that “prosecutors dominated trials, and defense attorneys played a minor role.” But if anything, the opposite was true for Bishimbayev’s trial. Vlast noted that “there was a feeling that the process was controlled not by judge Aizhan Kulbaeva, but by Bishimbayev’s lawyers.” On April 11 Bishimbayev’s legal team tried to file a complaint against the judge – which she summarily rejected. In a spirited speech in the last days of the trial, lawyer Igor Vranchev declared, “By unanimously recognizing Bishimbayev guilty and not giving him a chance to be released at all, you will free our entire Kazakhstan, our entire people from such elitist parasites.” While there was a small protest in Almaty decrying that Bishimbayev should have received a life sentence, 24 years is hardly getting off easy.