Kazakhstan has opened a trial against a former minister accused of killing his wife in a restaurant – shining the spotlight on violence against women in the central Asian country.

Kuandyk Bishimbayev, a former aide to autocrat Nursultan Nazarbayev, is accused of beating Saltanat Nukenova to death in November last year.

Journalists were barred from the courtroom in the capital, Astana, but they were allowed to watch live footage of the case broadcast to a press room.

The 43-year-old faces up to 15 years in prison if he is found guilty of killing his 31-year-old wife.

Female prosecutor Azhan Aymaganova told the court how Mr Bishimbayev, a former economy minister, killed Nukenova in a restaurant owned by the couple which was closed to the public on the night of the alleged murder. 

She said Bishimbayev “immediately began to show aggression” in his relationship with Nukenova and “forbade her to communicate and meet her relatives and friends, controlled all her phone calls and movements”.

She said the couple had been drinking in the restaurant and that “during the argument Nukenova told Bishimbayev that she was tired of the relationship and that she had decided to leave him”.

The prosecutor said he then began punching her in the head before Nukenova, fearing for her life, locked herself in the lavatory.

Around dawn, Bishimbayev broke the door down and beat her to death, it is claimed

Bishimbayev has denied the allegations

In 2018 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption but he was freed a year later after an amnesty.

The case has led to a renewed campaign to combat spousal abuse  in Kazakhstan, where the UN estimated that about 400 women a year are killed in femicides.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called on authorities to strengthen legal mechanisms to punish domestic violence after the Bishimbayev case.

Feminist organisations have urged the government to do more.