Wednesday, May 02, 2012 -
Lawyers for the wives of two murdered Kazakh bankers are pressing for charges against Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s former son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev, who lives in self-imposed exile in Malta.
Aliyev, 49, recently moved to the Mediterranean island nation from Austria after losing his immunity there.
The former Kazakh ambassador to Austria was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Kazakh court on charges of kidnapping bankers Aybar Khasenov and Zholdas Temiraliev in 2007. Their bodies were found at a factory in southern Kazakhstan last year. Aliyev was the main shareholder of Nurbank, which employed the two senior bank officials.
He also faces money laundering charges in relation to his role at the financial institution.
The two wives have hired Austrian and Maltese lawyers to mount their cases.
Maltese police questioned Aliyev in the presence of an Austrian lawyer last month.
Austria had refused Kazakhstan’s requests to extradite the exile because of it shoddy human rights record.
Eurojust, the EU agency for justice coordination, is reviewing the accusations made against the former banker.
The case has drawn the attention of a senior European parliamentarian who has asked the Maltese government why they gave permanent residence to Aliyev.
The Malta Today newspaper said Aliyev is married to an EU citizen and has taken the surname of Shoraz.
Aliyev has denied all charges and says Nazarbayev wants to knobble him because he is seen as a threat to his presidential leadership.
In Austria, Aliyev wrote a book on Nazarbayev entitled 'Godfather-In-Law,' in which he accused the Kazakh ruler of involvement in the murder of a former Kazakh ambassador to Russia.
Aliyev divorced Nazarbayev’s daughter Dariga in 2007.