Killer sentenced in high-profile ‘bride kidnapping’ case

A man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for kidnapping and murdering a young woman he planned to marry.

A man in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for kidnapping and murdering a woman he planned to marry, in a case that sparked public fury.

The murder of 20-year-old Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy inside a provincial police station in May caused uproar in Kyrgyzstan, sparking street demonstrations and the dismissals of several police officers.

Ms Turdaaly Kyzy’s kidnapper Mars Bodoshev, 29, was given a 20-year sentence on charges of murder and kidnap for marriage, a spokesman for the Sverdlovskiy District Court in the capital Bishkek told AFP.

Kyrgyzstan is known internationally for its custom of bride kidnapping, which sees thousands of girls abducted for forced marriage every year.

Women in Kyrgyzstan, who endured a kidnapping, taking part in a roundtable organised in the eastern city of Naryn. Picture: AFP

An accomplice who helped in the kidnapping was handed a seven-year sentence, the court spokesman said.

More than 20 police officers were removed from their positions over accusations of negligence after the murder.

Ms Turdaaly Kyzy was fatally stabbed by her kidnapper while waiting to file a complaint against him after he was apprehended by police.

Bodoshev then turned the knife on himself, according to police, but recovered in hospital.

The UN says 13.8 per cent of women in the ex-Soviet republic younger than 24 are forced into marriage with their abductors.

Bride kidnappings in the 21st century show just how screwed up our world still is pic.twitter.com/rFY2U8whmn

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Munara Beknazarova, a local activist against gender-based violence, welcomed the sentence and noted the “great resonance” of Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy’s case in Kyrgyz society.

“We know that kidnapping is commonly practised but few statements are made to police and even fewer cases go to court,” she told AFP.

“Hopefully after this case law enforcement and society as a whole will treat the crime more strictly,” she said.

Bride kidnapping has roots in the Kyrgyz people’s nomadic past. It persisted to some extent during Soviet times but boomed during the impoverished country’s chaotic independence from Moscow in 1991.

In Kyrgyzstan, 13.8 per cent of women under 24 are kidnapped and forced into marriage. Picture: AFP/STR