Almaty, Kazakhstan
Kazakh officials said this week that the opposition leader and presidential candidate who was found dead last month killed himself. The official investigation concluded that Zamanbek Nurkadilov shot himself twice in the chest before firing a bullet into his brain. Other candidates have also been having troubles in the run-up to the December presidential election. One candidate’s teenage daughter has been kidnapped, while another said two of his relatives were beaten unconscious. Incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev, a former Soviet strongman who has ruled Kazakhstan since it became independent in 1991, is the undisputed favorite to win another seven-year term.
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