Oralgaisha Omarshanova

Oralgaisha Omarshanova (, Oralğaişa Omarşanova) (1968 – went missing 30 March 2007) was a Kazakh journalist. She worked for the paper Zakon i Pravosudiye ("Law And Justice"), based in Astana. On 30 March she had secured a trip to Almaty Region to cover the clashes between Kazakhs and ethnic Chechens in the villages of Malovodnoye and Kazatkom, but never arrived. She had told a colleague previously that she had received threats by phone. She was last seen getting into a jeep in Almaty.

Background On 28 February and 7 March 2007, Omarshanova wrote two articles outlining her theories on whether the murder of Sagit Shokputov, an influential Jezkazgan-based businessman and manager of Kazakhmys, had any connection with his vilification by the state-controlled media shortly before his death.

According to the Kazakh government, on 17 March 2007, a mob of hundreds of Kazakhs in Malovodnoye and Kazatkom surrounded the Chechen Makmakhanov family at their home, demanding explanation for a quarrel the previous night in which one of the brothers shot a Kazakh in the leg. The brothers shot back from their windows, wounding nine Kazakhs and killing two. The mob then attacked and set fire to the structure, killing three members of the family. Most media coverage focused on the ethnic nature of the conflict. whom they claimed to be a known criminal, for her murder.

Death Serik Zhamanaev confessed his killing of Omarzhanova in 2021. He pinpointed the exact location of her burial, and her remains have been found there.