Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court has convicted a former government official of torturing and brutally murdering his wife and sentenced him to 24 years in prison. The trial had gripped the Central Asian nation. Thousands of people during the trial called for harsher penalties for domestic violence, and the authorities adopted a bill toughening spousal abuse laws. The trial was the first in the country of over 19 million people to be streamed online, and debates about it dominated social media. Kazakhstan largely remains a patriarchal society, and progress has been slow on issues such as domestic violence.
