Kazakhstan’s authorities have unexpectedly allowed an occasion commemorating the eightieth anniversary of the start of the late opposition politician Zamanbek Nurqadilov, an outspoken critic of the Central Asian nation’s former president, Nursultan Nazarbaev.
On January 14, politicians, public figures, lawmakers, and celebrities gathered for an occasion to commemorate Nurqadilov at a restaurant in central Almaty, the nation’s largest metropolis. Particular letters by President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev and the chairman of the Senate, Kazakh parliament’s higher chamber, Maulen Ashimbaev, had been learn on the ceremony praising Nurqadilov’s contribution to the constructing of Kazakh statehood.
Nurqadilov, was as soon as mayor of Almaty and chairman of the Emergency Conditions Company earlier than he was a fierce critic of Nazarbaev and his authorities in 2004. He was discovered lifeless with two bullets in his chest and one in his head at his dwelling in Almaty in November 2005. Official investigators dominated the dying was a suicide, sparking a public outcry on the time.
Toqaev’s letter mentioned a monument to Nurqadilov might be erected in his native Kegen district within the Almaty area, whereas considered one of native faculties might be named after him and a plaque honoring him might be positioned on the home in Almaty the place he lived.
Nurqadilov’s former affiliate, businessman Bolat Abilov, referred to as the occasion commemorating Nurqadilov “a political, historic, and ethical rehabilitation” of the politician, including that every one the Nazarbaev monuments throughout the nation have to be demolished and memorials to honor Nurqadilov and different politicians and journalists who died amid suspicious circumstances have to be constructed as a substitute.
Nurqadilov’s dying occurred across the similar time as a collection of deaths of opposition politicians and journalists.
Amongst them are the deaths of opposition chief and former Kazakh ambassador to Russia, Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, and his two associates, who had been discovered shot lifeless close to Almaty in February 2006, three months after Nurqadilov’s dying.
Each politicians had been interviewed in July 2004 by distinguished unbiased journalist Askhat Sharipzhanov, who was discovered later the identical day because the interview crushed and unconscious with a fractured cranium. He died three days later in hospital.
Police mentioned Sharipzhanov had been hit by a automobile, however pals and colleagues mentioned his accidents advised he had been struck within the head and arms earlier than being hit by a car.
Sarsenbaiuly’s killing was formally declared to have been motivated by private enmity. A former chief of employees of the Kazakh parliament, Erzhan Otembaev, was convicted of ordering the slaying and sentenced to twenty years in jail.
Nevertheless, in 2013, Otembaev’s sentence was annulled after Kazakh authorities introduced that the case had been despatched for overview based mostly on newly obtained proof they mentioned indicated that Rakhat Aliev, Nazarbaev’s former son-in-law, had ordered the killing.
Aliev, who was deputy chief of Kazakhstan’s Nationwide Safety Committee when the slaying befell and have become an outspoken opponent of Nazarbaev in 2007, was in self-imposed exile in Europe on the time.
Aliev was later arrested by Austrian officers on the request of authorities in Kazakhstan, who accused him of involvement within the kidnapping and homicide of two Kazakh bankers.
In February 2015, Aliev was discovered hanged in a Vienna jail.
Austrian officers dominated Aliev’s dying a suicide, however many in Kazakhstan consider he was murdered whereas in Austrian custody.
