In the trial of Kuandyk Bishimbayev, who is accused of murdering his common-law wife Saltanat Nukenova, WhatsApp correspondence from the defendant’s phone was read, Orda.kz reports.
“Moral freak”
From the very first interrogation, Kuandyk Bishimbayev spoke regarding his mobile phone and correspondence with Saltanat Nukenova, which supposedly should have completely refuted the accusations of torture. Finally, the turn came to this evidence.
It turned out that most of the correspondence with his common-law wife and other people in Bishimbayev’s phone was deleted. He explained that he wanted to erase them for various reasons. He allegedly deleted dialogues with Saltanat when they broke up.
But at the same time, Bishimbayev saved individual conversations in the form of screenshots – for July 15, 17 and 19, 2023. He asked them to be voiced first.
“There’s just the fact that she broke down the door and climbed through the window (from July 15). And from July 17 and 19, 2023, this will fully confirm all my testimony,” Bishimbayev said.
Judge Aizhan Kulbaeva read out the text of the first screenshot. On July 15, 2023, Saltanat wrote to Kuandyk:
“Okay, we’re not destined to be together. Goodbye, I don’t hold a grudge, but I don’t love you anymore. I tear out a piece of my heart and delete it. Moral freak.”
After two missed video calls, another message from Saltanat:
“I’m going to break into the house now, pick up the phone.”
Testifying at the first court hearings, Kuandyk Bishimbayev often mentioned that Saltanat used profanity and behaved aggressively in quarrels with him. But the correspondence, even those that he screenshotted to save and prove something, did not contain a single swear word.
In the following messages, Saltanat Nukenova spoke regarding love and lost trust:
“I’ll go. You have done so much for me. I collect all my things and decorations and realize that it’s all you. Thank you for everything, I know you were honest and sincere. It’s a pity that it happened this way, we didn’t appreciate each other.”
In the following screenshots, Saltanat said that she wanted to calm down, be alone and find ground under her feet “without quarrels and runaways.” And then she suddenly changes the tone of her messages.
“Sorry, come home. It hurts in my soul, if you can forgive and accept me, come back. I forgive you everything too. If something can be fixed, I want to fix it. If you can’t and don’t believe me, I’ll live here while you’re gone. I don’t want to go home and see my parents. I’ll pull myself together mentally, rent an apartment and start working. I just give up, I feel bad without you. I love you, miss you very much and appreciate all your efforts. That’s why I want to start all over once more. Who knows, maybe it will work out and we’ll be happy,” writes Saltanat Nukenova.
In one of the messages, she analyzes her relationship with Bishimbayev:
“I left because I read everything that a narcissist will always devalue you. After the romantic period, loosening will come once more. After analyzing our marriage, I realized that everything was happening in a circle. Prove to me that this is not so, that you can love, be faithful, honest, caring. I will prove that I will be a good wife and make you the happiest. I don’t want to believe articles and books, I want to believe you so that we can justify each other’s trust.”
When asked for what purpose he saved these screenshots, Bishimbayev replied:
“I just wanted to show her. I told you, she often asked for an apology, came back, then everything changed once more.”
In addition to screenshots of correspondence with Saltanat, hidden video files were found on Bishimbayev’s phone. The defendant asked not to show these recordings in court. The victim’s brother also said that there was no need to show these videos.
Earlier, from correspondence between Saltanat Nukenova and her friends, it became known that Bishimbayev forced her to appear in an intimate video. In all likelihood, these videos may be stored in that same hidden folder.
Diagnostics at a distance
The court also studied the list of the defendant’s calls and his What’sApp correspondence on the day of Saltanat Nukenova’s murder. Bishimbayev called contact “Gulnar Shym” many times during the day. This is the same clairvoyant from Shymkent from whom the defendant tried to find out whether Saltanat Nukenova would wake up following the beating on November 9, 2023.
“While Baizhanov was going downstairs, I called her. Since I mightn’t find a pulse, I wanted to find out what was happening, why was this? She didn’t take it. Then she took it and told us to call an ambulance. I told her: “You said that she should wake up in the evening. But now I can’t wake her up, I can’t find a pulse.” “I wanted to find out what was going on,” Bishimbayev explained.
In correspondence, he asked the clairvoyant regarding Saltanat’s condition. The question was in Kazakh: “Esi sau ma?” which in Russian means: “Is she conscious?” The clairvoyant, being one and a half thousand kilometers away, answered: “Sau,” that is, “In consciousness.”
And Bishimbayev said that he believed the words of the clairvoyant and was in no hurry to call an ambulance.
Who sniffed Bishimbayev
Kuandyk Bishimbayev’s correspondence with blogger Gulnara Nasyrbekova and other women with whom he communicated via messenger while Saltanat Nukenova was dying in the VIP booth deserve special attention.
On November 9, Gulnara Nasyrbekova sent a photo that might not be loaded. And she wrote: “By the way, you smell like roses.”
In addition, in Bishimbayev’s phone, the judge found correspondence with the contact “Yulia Super” on November 9, 2023, in the period from 19:07 to 19:36.
Bishimbayev warned that this was personal correspondence and asked not to make it public. But the parties to the process insisted, since the correspondence in time related to the supposed moment of Saltanat Nukenova’s death.
At this time, Bishimbayev had the following dialogue with “Yulia Super”:
- Bishimbayev: “What’s going on?”
- Julia Super: “I did eyelashes.”
- Bishimbaev: «Free?»
- Julia Super: “What time?”
Representatives of the victim noticed that Bishimbayev’s correspondence with this lady was going on in parallel with finding out from the clairvoyant why Saltanat did not wake up.
Bishimbayev did not answer what services “Yulia Super” provided to Bishimbayev and why she should have been “free.” The judge dismissed the issue.
Kuandyk Bishimbayev is accused of murdering his common-law wife Saltanat Nukenova. The indictment contains two articles:
- clause 5, part 2 art. 99 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan – (“Murder with extreme cruelty”);
- clause 1, part 2 art. 110 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan – (“Torture”).
His relative Bakhytzhan Baizhanov, director of the Gastrocenter, is accused of two counts:
- 432 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan – (“Concealment”);
- 434 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan – (“Failure to report a crime”).
Saltanat Nukenova was found dead on November 9, 2023 in the BAU restaurant on the second floor of the Gastrocenter in Astana. On the same day, former Minister of National Economy Kuandyk Bishimbayev was detained on suspicion of murder.
The main jury trial in the case continues from March 27, 2024.
The trial is ongoing. Orda.kz is monitoring developments.
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