London-born pilot Mohamed Barakat, 46, has spent five years behind bars after his one-year-old daughter was murdered – but an alleged ‘confession’ from his ex-wife could change his fate
A British airline captain locked up in a hellhole prison in Kazakhstan for the brutal death of his one-year-old daughter could walk free after an alleged confession from his glam ex-wife.
London-born Airbus 330 pilot Mohamed Barakat, 46, was thrown into prison to serve a 20 year sentence in a high security prison after his British daughter Sophia Barakat died. The one-year-old’s brains were “crushed” in a drink and drug fuelled frenzy at a five star hotel on 24 October 2019, according to the court case in Kazakhstan, which convicted her father. Kazakh police have now opened an investigation into whether the Brit was wrongly jailed for the tragic death.
The country’s Prosecutor’s Office has triggered an investigation “on newly discovered circumstances”, primarily an alleged confession by the pilot’s ex-wife Madina Abdullayeva, 28, that she – and not her husband – killed the baby. At the time, staff at the hotel said Madina blamed her husband for Sophia’s death, shouting: “He killed my child, he hit her.”
His indictment at the time claimed Sophia’s head was banged against the walls and doors of his five-star hotel suite. He was also accused of beating his wife before allegedly turning on his daughter.
Despite this, his then-wife said she would support the pilot during his 2020 trial and said the one-year-old’s death was an “accident”. Madina was caught on CCTV on the night Sophia died pleading with the staff at the InterContinental Hotel, in Almaty, before she laid the girl’s body on the reception counter.
Unable to cope, the heartbroken mother sank to the floor, but was helped up by hotel security who had just called an ambulance. The distraught mother then tried to carry Sophia through to a sofa in the hotel lobby but collapsed on the floor again.
In a shocking twist, the London-born pilot’s legal team and family claim there is mounting evidence of a major miscarriage of justice. His former wife “has been questioned regarding the [new] circumstances of the case, and voice samples have also been obtained from her”, revealed Police Lt-Col R Kurbanov.
A “forensic video-phonoscopy examination” has been ordered and “other investigative actions are also planned”, the prosecutor’s office said. The pilot – who has been in detention and jail for five and a half years – turned detective from inside his prison, talking to his then estranged wife (the couple divorced in May 2025) on social media from his cell.
Madina was accused of posting “I kill her….,” in evidence now being examined by police and the pilot replied to her and said “I know you did.” He has always maintained his innocence and previously claimed that his wife accidentally killed their child.
The ex-wife allegedly also said in the social media chat, with the jailed pilot, that she wanted another baby with Barakat – who she had met in an Almaty nightclub. In a video made by privately-educated Barakat, from his jail cell, he spoke about her “confession” and said: “Two days ago, we had another argument. I told her I would never have another baby with her until she told me what happened to my daughter, Sophia Barakat. And here you can see, she wrote ‘Call me please’.
“And then, she writes ‘I kill her’. And then’‘Say thanks that I didn’t tell you.'” In later conversations, Madina allegedly asked him to “forgive me” several times.
Separately, the wife on a recorded call allegedly said to Barakat that she broke Sophia’s neck at the hotel in Almaty. The ex-wife supposedly said: “I left…and then when I come back, she is awake and crying because she’s hungry. I start to feed her. And then she start to poo… and I try to wash her bum. And when I wash her, I break her neck…”
The pilot received a maximum sentence under the criminal code because of the “aggravating circumstance” of committing the murder “in a state of alcoholic and drug intoxication”, said the statement. His lawyer Din-Mukhamed Narymbetov said there were now “grounds for hope” his client will be exonerated based on new evidence and claimed there were also astonishing legal failings in the investigation and trial.
One of these claims was that the only evidence of drug use was a toxicology test showing traces of THC in vomit from the hotel mattress, yet the centre has dismissed use of such evidence as unreliable. The lawyer said: “CCTV shows him walking steadily into the hotel, handing balloons to his daughter, and carrying her. Hotel staff said he did not appear drunk.”
Another alleged violation was that Sophia was British and under the rules three experts should have carried out the baby’s autopsy, yet only one did.
Barakat said: “Madina knows I am innocent. My family knows I’m innocent. The lawyers who stood with me – they know I’m innocent.” When asked to comment on this report, Madina said: “I am not going to answer these questions.”