Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/468421
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 25 FEBRUARY 2015 6 News Kazakh exile who hid in Malta, found dead in Austrian jail MAT THEW VELLA RAKHAT Aliyev, the Kazakh President's former son-in-law who had come to Malta in a bid to evade double murder charges, has been found dead in an Aus- trian jail after killing himself, a court spokeswoman said on Tuesday. His law yers said they doubted he had taken his own life. Aliyev had turned himself in to Austrian prosecutors in 2014 af- ter they filed charges in Decem- ber, charging him with the mur- der of two bankers in 2007. Austria had refused Kaza- khstan's two requests for extradi- tion because of the former Soviet republic's human rights record. Aliyev, a former Kazakh ambas- sador to Austria until 2008, be- came a vocal critic of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. After being forcibly divorced from his wife Dariga, Aliyev came to Mal- ta in 2010 on the strength of his second wife's Austrian citizen- ship. After leaving Malta in 2014 he tried applying for Cypriot citi- zenship. He had been in custody since June 2014 when he turned him- self in to Austrian authorities af- ter a four-year investigation. The Austrian Press Agency said that yesterday Aliyev was supposed to testif y against two fellow prisoners who allegedly blackmailed the former ambassa- dor, according to the indictment. Aliyev alleged that he was being forced to pay them €3,000. APA quoted corrections de- partment director Peter Prechtl as saying Aliyev's body was found at 7:20 a.m. in Vienna's Josefstadt prison in a cell where he had been in solitary confinement. He hanged himself in a bath- room, Prechtl said, who added that the cell he was in was checked regularly. Aliyev was said to have hanged himself with bandages on a coat hook. "For us, it was clearly suicide, there is no evidence that he was murdered," he said. To get into the cell, the murderer or murderers would first have had to have the appropriate key. "And that is indeed not easy to get," Prechtl told APA, adding that the entire area was under video sur- veillance. Defence attorneys Manfred and Klaus Ainedter were quoted by APA as saying they could not im- agine their client, 52, had killed himself. "I have significant doubts about this without wanting to blame anyone. I visited him yesterday. There could be no talk whatso- ever of danger of suicide," Klaus Ainedter told APA, noting that he expected a thorough investi- gation. Prechtl said Aliyev had request- ed a single cell in the prison's hospital unit. He was not con- sidered at risk of suicide and was graded "green" in the corrections department system, which meant he could be left unattended. Aliyev had complained in Malta that he was being spied upon by officers from the Kazakh secret service, of which he once was its deput y chief. In June 2014, through his law- yer Joe Giglio, Aliyev filed a con- stitutional application calling on the Court to declare that an asset freeze carried out at the request of the Kazakh government was against his right to a fair trial, and to lift the embargo on his wealth. The freezing order also affect- ed the wealth of his Austrian- naturalised wife Elnara Shora- zova, prohibiting the couple from transferring any movable or im- movable propert y. Having st yled himself as a "pro- gressive political dissident", in his constitutional claim Aliyev suggested that the Kazakh dicta- torship had wormed its way into the Attorney General 's office and that the Maltese courts have been "infiltrated by the Kazakh re- gime" – or that Malta was, by acting on a request of the dic- tatorship, by proxy denuding him of his fundamental hu- man rights. Critics say cases will continue Peter Zalmayev, the director of Eurasia Democracy Initia- tive, has been helping Satzhan Ibraev and Pyotr Afanasenko obtain justice in their com- plaints against Aliyev, whom they accused of having per- sonally tortured them and im- prisoned them on false accusa- tions of planning a coup against Nursultan Nazarbayev. "Aliyev sought to present him- self as a leader of Kazakhstani opposition, a fighter for democ- racy and human rights. In fact, he himself exemplified the worst in Kazakhstan's political system, using his official positions to per- secute his political and business opponents. By taking his life like this, Mr Aliyev pre-empted his many victims in their persistent efforts to obtain justice in their cases against him," Zalmayev told MaltaToday. "I suspect that Aliyev may have decided to take his life for several reasons. First of all, we now know that the trial against him in Vien- na was set for 11 April, and it was definite. Also, earlier this month, the former bodyguards of [former prime minister] Akezhan Kazhe- geldin gave testimony against him to the Vienna prosecutor – and he was facing five years in prison if he were tried for that crime. "Finally, the investigations of Aliyev's reported illegal financial dealings in Europe, which include charges of money-laundering, must continue. The victims of his financial crimes, including Serik Medetbekov and Pyotr Afanas- senko must be compensated." On his part, Kazakhstan's former prime minister, Akezhan Kazhegeldin – who was accused by Aliyev of having planned a coup against his father-in-law – said that Aliyev had evaded Euro- pean justice for many years. "He spent tens of millions of dollars on law yers who helped him with that. He sponsored football clubs, befriended well- known politicians, and invested his ill-gotten money in various business ventures with promi- nent businessmen. This is how he tried to get immunit y from crim- inal prosecution for his grave crimes, those of murder, torture, racketeering and money launder- ing. When it became clear to him that he would no longer be able to get away with his crimes, he made the decision to end his life." Law yer Gabriel Lansky, who was at the forefront of a money laundering investigation against Aliyev and a representative of the wives of the two bankers he was accused of having murdered, said the circumstances and cause of death had yet to be cleared so that there would be no doubt of any conspiracy. "The trial against his co- accused, Alnur Mussayev and Vadim Koshlyak, must take place as planned for the murder to be solved for the victims." Sicilian to file Constitutional case after a decade's wait for trial PIERO Di Bartolo is expected to file a Constitutional case claiming a breach of his right to a fair trial within a rea- sonable time after Mr Justice Michael Mallia turned down an urgent request to overturn the decision he handed down last Monday, postponing his trial indefinitely at the request of the Attorney General. Lawyer Robert Montaldo filed the request on behalf of the Sicilian, who stands accused of a murder which is alleged to have taken place in 2005, after the AG requested the court to hear Di Bartolo's case together with that of his alleged accomplice – af- ter the AG's office had waged a seven year court struggle to have them heard separately. Di Bartolo and co-accused Anthony Bugeja, are pleading not guilty to the 2005 murder of Marsaxlokk man Albert Brian Rosso. Di Bartolo faces charges of complicity in Rosso's mur- der, disposing of a body and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Montaldo argued that the Attorney General's office had campaigned for years for the cases to be heard sepa- rately, and that it was not right for the prosecutor suddenly to change his mind right before the trial was due to start. The defence described the AG's re- quest as an "extraordinary somersault, which could only be interpreted as a strategic move on the part of the AG". Defence attorneys said they could not imagine their client had killed himself Rakhat Aliyev, found hanged President Nursultan Nazarbayev Satzhan Ibraev (centre) and Pyotr Afanasenko (right)