New Delhi:

A harrowing video taken by a passenger inside the cabin of an aircraft that crashed in Kazakhstan today has been shared widely on social media, showing the final moments of the doomed plane. Thirty-five people were killed in the crash near Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.

In the video, the passenger is heard saying “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) as the plane goes into a steep descent. Yellow oxygen masks were seen dangling over the seats. Screaming and crying were heard, amid the soft doorbell-like sound of the ‘wear seatbelt’ light.

The plane was flying from the Azerbaijani capital Baku on the western shore of the Caspian to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia. Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, said the plane “made an emergency landing” around 3 km from Aktau.

Another video taken inside the cabin – the plane’s ceiling panel that has reading lights and air blower is upside down – showed people screaming for help. The video was clearly after the plane had crashed.

The final moments of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane before its crash in Kazakhstan were captured by a passenger onboard.

Aftermath also included in the footage. pic.twitter.com/nCRozjdoUY

— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 25, 2024

Blood stains on some armrests were visible.

Azerbaijani authorities said 32 people survived the crash of the Embraer 190, a narrow-body passenger aircraft.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared Thursday a day of national mourning and cancelled a planned visit to Russia for an informal summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet nations.

The Kazakh emergency situations ministry said its staff put out a fire which broke out when the plane crashed. The health ministry said a special flight was being sent from the Kazakh capital Astana with specialist doctors to treat the injured.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation with Aliyev and also “expressed his condolences in connection with the crash”, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news conference.

A Russian emergency situations ministry had been sent to Aktau with medical personnel and other equipment, President Putin said later as he opened the CIS leaders’ meeting in Saint Petersburg.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Telegram: “I express my condolences to the relatives of the passengers of the Azerbaijan Airlines jet who died.”

The plane’s course on Flight Radar showed it crossing the Caspian Sea away from its normal route and then circling over the area where it eventually crashed.

Kazakhstan said it had opened an investigation.

With inputs from AFP

New Delhi:
Thousands in Kazakhstan are currently following the trial of former minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev charged with beating his wife Saltanat Nukenova to death. The Supreme Court proceedings are being live-streamed on social media like a dark reality show.

1. 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.

2. Shocking footage played in the court 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.

3. Video evidence presented in court captured the harrowing moments of abuse, showing Bishimbayev assaulting Nukenova outside the restaurant, pulling her hair, kicking her while she was on the ground, and delivering a powerful blow to her jaw.

4. The 8-hour-long assault video also showed Bishimbayev breaking down the door when Saltanat tried to hide in a bathroom.

5. The restaurant staff was instructed not to call emergency services and to delete CCTV footage, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

6. As she lay on the floor, covered in her blood, Bishimbayev called a fortune-teller, who assured him his wife would be fine.

7. The ambulance arrived 12 hours later, and the medical staff declared her dead at the scene.

8. A coroner’s report unveiled that Nukenova succumbed to brain trauma, with evidence of severe physical abuse including a broken nasal bone and numerous bruises on her body.

9. 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.

10. His lawyers initially challenged medical evidence indicating Nukenova’s cause of death and attempted to portray her as a violent and jealous individual.

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The trial of a former Kazakhstan minister charged with beating his wife to death has become the talking point across the nation, with some seeing it as a litmus test of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s promise to build a fairer, more equitable society.

Saltanat Nukenova, 31, was found dead last November in a restaurant owned by a relative of her husband Kuandyk Bishimbayev, where the couple had spent almost a whole day and the previous night. She had been unconscious for hours.

In a recent hearing, the court was shown 8-hour-long footage of 44-year-old Kuandyk Bishimbayev, a former economy minister, beating his wife Saltanat Nukenova. The surveillance footage shows Bishimbayev kicking and punching the 31-year-old repeatedly in a restaurant owned by his family.

He is then seen dragging her by the hair to a separate room, where there were no cameras.  

When she tried to escape by hiding in the toilet, Bishimbayev “broke down the door, pulled her out, and continued beating her,” the prosecutor said during the trial.

“He grabbed her by the throat after dragging her out of the toilet. This is when she lost consciousness,” the prosecutor added.

As she lay on the floor, covered in her blood, Bishimbayev dialled a fortune-teller, who assured him his wife would be fine. The ambulance arrived 12 hours later, and the medical staff declared her dead at the scene.

According to a coroner’s report, Saltanat died from brain trauma. One of her nasal bones was broken and there were multiple bruises on her face, head, arms, and hands.

Bishimbayev is charged with torture and murder with extreme violence and faces up to 20 years in prison. The murder trial, which is being livestreamed on social media, has gripped public attention and sparked a debate about gender equality and domestic violence.

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.

A fire broke out at a mine in Kazakhstan belonging to the global steel giant ArcelorMittal. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

At least 21 people were killed Saturday when a fire broke out at a mine in Kazakhstan belonging to the global steel giant ArcelorMittal, prompting the government to order an “end to investment cooperation” with the company.

It was the second deadly disaster in two months at an ArcelorMittal site in Kazakhstan, after five miners were killed in an accident at a mine in the same region in August.

“The government has been ordered to end investment cooperation with ArcelorMittal,” Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in a statement shortly after the fire near the town of Karaganda, an industrial region in central Kazakhstan.

ArcelorMittal’s operations in the country have regularly been accused by authorities of failing to respect safety and environmental regulations.

At least 21 miners died at the Kostenko mine, and a search was continuing for 23 others who were among more than 200 underground when the fire struck, the company said in a statement.

Regional officials had said early that 40 rescuers had been sent to the site, with the government’s emergency response minister, Syrym Sharipkhanov, announcing he would be arriving on site soon.

No cause of the accident has yet been released.