Aydos Sadykov. Photo: Facebook
Kazakh opposition journalist Aydos Sadykov, who was shot by assassins in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv last month, has died from his injuries, his wife announced on Tuesday.
“Aydos Sadykov left us today at 3am Kyiv time,” Natalia Sadykova wrote, adding, “He was my beloved husband, the father of our three children and a great son of the Kazakh people.”
Sadykova, who with her husband founded the YouTube channel Base, which is highly critical of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and boasts over 1 million subscribers, said that her husband “gave up his life for Kazakhstan and died a martyr’s death at the hands of contract killers. … His death is on Tokayev’s conscience.”
According to investigators, two Kazakh citizens approached Sadykov’s car in Kyiv on 18 June and shot him in the head using a gun with a silencer. The men were named as Altai Zhakanbaev and Meyram Karataev, both of whom had arrived in Ukraine earlier that month.
Despite being shot at close range, however, Sadykov survived the shooting, though his condition was extremely serious and he remained in a coma until his death just over two weeks later.
While Ukrainian law enforcement said that both suspects fled to Moldova after the shooting, Zhakanbaev turned himself in to the authorities in Kazakhstan on 21 June. Maulen Ashimbayev, the chairman of the Senate, the upper house of the Kazakh parliament, said on 27 June that he would not be extradited to Ukraine.
Sadykov was granted asylum in Ukraine in 2014. He had been wanted in Kazakhstan since last year, according to The Guardian.
