Today, Kazakh police officials declared Zamanbek Nurkadilov, formerly a Kazakh opposition leader, to have committed suicide. If the police are correct, then it was one heck of a suicide. Assuming Nurkadilov did manage to kill himself, he had the resolve to shoot himself twice in the chest, and then finish the job with a direct shot to the head. He could have made things easier on himself and used a wooden Katana.

Nurkadilov was found dead a few weeks back after declaring that he would go public with information about corruption in the Kazakhstan government. What sort of corruption he never specified, though he said it would be “high level.” Police found no signs of a break-in, and his body had barely cooled before police stated that they had “ruled out a political motive.”

Ruled out a political motive? A Kazkh opposition leader ends up dead right after indicating that he will reveal mass corruption and bribery in the highest levels of the Kazakh government, exactly when Kazakhstan wants to demonstrate to the world that it is ready to take its place in the international arena, and there is no reason to suspect a political connection?

While Police officials say they found no traces of forced entry, but they did find a pillow pierced by bullets, suggesting that it had been used to silence him and the gun shot if/when the deed was done.

The police also allege that Nurkadilov shot himself because of a “family conflict.” No kidding; the kind of family troubles that might arise from realizing that your days are numbered because you stepped out of bounds in the political arena? And even if his family wasn’t having trouble then, it’s a safe bet they are now.

Murders happen everywhere, even politically motivated ones, and if Kazakhstan wants to show that it is on the path of development, it should at least carry out a moderately thorough investigation, instead of insulting everyone’s intelligence with a belief-beggaring allegation of suicide. There may well be some information here I am not considering, but based on the news available, this affair reeks of exactly the sort of corruption Nurkadilov was purportedly going to expose.