Family of Aknar Gulistan Alleges Negligence in Investigation of Daughter’s Death

Bite marks, clumps of torn hair, broken nails, and fractures — these are the injuries that Gulistan Hamit says her daughter Aknar sustained before falling from a seventh-floor apartment in Almaty in July 2023.

The 22-year-old’s mother believes her daughter was tortured and has claimed the police failed to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death properly. She says key evidence, including video footage, was ignored, while two individuals present that night were not treated as suspects but as witnesses. 

Orda.kz attended a press conference held by Aknar’s relatives.

The incident occurred in the Amir residential complex. Aknar’s mother disputes the official version of events, which suggests suicide. She says that on the night of her daughter’s death, Aknar was with two other young women. When she attempted to call her daughter, a stranger answered and would not let her speak.

Aknar’s sister later began receiving voice messages about “a young woman being strangled to death.”

Aknar’s mother says she gathered evidence that she submitted to the authorities; she alleges the police took no action.

Before the burial, while preparing Aknar’s body for the Muslim funeral rites, her relatives observed visible injuries—including bite marks, a broken arm, and missing nails.

However, the official forensic report noted only minor abrasions near the ear.

When Aknar’s phone was returned to the family, they found video clips that appeared to show her being subject to violence.

The two young women present that night were Chinese citizens at the time. According to the family, one has since received Kazakh citizenship. Both were designated as witnesses in the case, allowing them to travel freely in and out of the country.

The family says there were no restrictions placed on them.

Too Short

Aknar was born in 2002 in China and grew up in Kazakhstan. She studied at KIMEP University, spoke several languages, worked as a translator, and ran a small business importing clothing from China.

On the night of July 20, 2024, Aknar’s father and aunt received alarming messages and calls from her phone. The callers claimed Aknar had been assaulted and was dying. Shortly after, they lost contact. Later, a man identifying himself as a police officer called from Aknar’s phone and told her aunt that she had fallen from a window.

Aknar was taken to the hospital in critical condition and passed away without regaining consciousness.

The two young women, later identified as witnesses, were acquaintances from university. According to Aknar’s mother, her daughter may have visited them that evening to show clothing samples. While both the young women were reportedly intoxicated, toxicology results showed Aknar was sober.

The investigators did not even question the two young women. They did not question those who saw Aknar fall from the window either. Among them was a blogger who later stated on social media that he heard screams before the fall. We went around all the nearby houses ourselves and collected footage from surveillance cameras to reconstruct what happened. I personally took all of this to the investigator, but he did not include any of it in the case. My lawyers’ requests remained unanswered. Usually, the crime scene is isolated until the investigation is completed. Here, the young women managed to clean the apartment before the police arrived. Not a single personal item of my daughter was found in the apartment — no documents, no bank cards, no money, no jewelry. Only in the toilet paper bin did I find a clump of her hair. The young women's phones were not confiscated; they both changed their numbers shortly after the incident. I still have not seen these young women. And my Aknar’s phone was given to us only 40 days later. In it, I found videos of my daughter being tortured. But the investigation is ignoring them too,
says Gulistan Hamit. 

She also stated that the prosecutor had issued an order to detain the young women, but this order has not yet been enforced.

The family believes that if the young woman had not been implicated, they would have come forward to express sympathy and initiate a conversation with the family.

When we arrived at the police station, only two hours had passed since Aknar's death. And in that short time, we had already seen that these two young women had lawyers,
 said Aknar’s brother.

Lawyer Inga Imanbay is representing the family. She stated that the case is currently being investigated under Article 105, Part 1 (“Driving to Suicide”) of the Criminal Code, but argues that the evidence warrants more serious charges, such as “Homicide” and “Torture.”

The case was initially assigned to the Bostandyk District Police Department but has since been transferred to the Almaty city department.

CCTV footage from different angles, as well as video from Aknar’s phone, where she screams in despair just before falling from the seventh floor, all serve as direct evidence that she was thrown out of the window,
 stated Imanbay.

The Orda.kz editorial team has submitted official inquiries to law enforcement and the prosecutor’s office regarding the status of the detention order and why further steps have not been taken.

Updates will be published as responses are received.

Original Author: Perizat Zharylkasyn

The original article was written on May 16.