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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 4 MAY 2014 News 7 MATTHEW VELLA A journalist and former director of Radio Free Europe in Kiev was ar- rested in connection with criminal investigations that have led to the freezing of assets of Kazakh exile and multi-millionaire Rakhat Ali- yev. American citizen Alexander Nar- odetsky, who owns a 1% sharehold- ing in the company Bongu Media Malta, was questioned by Maltese police over a series of transfers the company made to Elnara Shorazo- va, the wife of Aliyev. According to sources privy to the investigation on the financial affairs of Aliyev, who is believed to be no longer living in Malta, Narodetsky was questioned over the transfer of some €938,000 from the company Bongu Media Malta, to Shorazova's personal account. MaltaToday is not suggesting that the money transfer is irregular. Bongu Media Malta is 99% owned by Narodetsky's wife Kathleen, ac- cording to company records. Along with another company, Malta Press Agency, it is based at an address at Pendergardens in St Julian's. Both firms have had their assets frozen by order of a Maltese court, on the strength of the money laundering investigation against Aliyev. The Criminal Court issued the freezing order on the assets owned by Aliyev, 52, and his Austrian wife Elnara Shorazova, prohibiting the couple and their companies from transferring or disposing of any movable or immovable property. Aliyev, formerly the son-in- law of Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev and deputy head of the Kazakh secret service, this week claimed through his Austrian law- yers that he and his associates were being persecuted by agents of the Kazakh secret service, in Malta. Narodetsky even filed a police report, claiming that two plain- clothes officers had told him to re- port to police inspector Raymond Aquilina's office for questioning, but that he "suspected that this could be something from the secret service of Kazakhstan or else from the MaltaToday newspaper" – ac- cording to his police report. Narodetsky was later presented with an arrest warrant at home, and shown a court order for the search of his apartment. He said he was kept under arrest for seven hours by the economic crimes unit, which is conducting the investigation on Aliyev's financial affairs. Another company whose as- sets have been frozen are Olympic Yachting Limited – possibly used as the owner of his personal yacht – whose shareholder is Ganado Trustees & Fiduciaries. Other com- panies with their assets frozen are AJ Trust, Sydney Trust, and Athi- na Trust of Malta; and Acquarius Trust Company Limited and Aure- lius Holdings Limited of Gibraltar; and EDS Holdings Ltds and Crim- son Limited. Berlin lawyers Danckert Spiller Richter Bärlein, acting on behalf of the Kazakh ministry of justice, claim Aliyev has shifted to Malta over €100 million in alleged "crimi- nal gains" during his time as deputy head of the Kazakh secret service. MaltaToday has been unable to substantiate these allegations, al- though they have not been rebutted by Maltese investigators so far. Police challenge Tomorrow Aliyev faces a police challenge in court, filed by two Ka- zakh nationals who want the Maltese courts to force the Commissioner of Police to start investigations on their allegations that they were tor- tured on Aliyev's orders. Satzhev Ibraev and Pyotr Afa- nasenko claim they were tortured on order of Aliyev in 2001, and person- ally beaten by him, to extract a false confession that their boss, former prime minister Akezhan Kazagel- din, was plotting a coup against Ali- yev's father-in-law, Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev. Their lawyer says that Article 139A of the Criminal Code is clear about what torture constitutions. The law was introduced in the Criminal Code in 1990, when Malta ratified the Convention Against Torture, which lays an obligation on member states to prosecute torture, even if committed outside Malta. "There are no issues of jurisdiction or retroactivity as claimed by the Attorney General in his opposition against the previous complaint," the lawyer had told MaltaToday previ- ously. Aliyev has been living in Malta since 2010, availing himself of the right of free movement across the EU as the spouse of Austrian citizen Elnara Shorazova. In August 2013 he applied for naturalisation as a Cypriot citizen. His lawyers, Fidler & Gemeiner, of Vienna, say he is now living in Greeece. Aliyev was living in Austria as the Kazakh ambassador to OSCE, before falling out with his father-in-law, the dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev, and being forcibly divorced from his daughter. In 2008 he was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment in absen- tia by a Kazakh court over the mur- der of two bankers. Austria refused to extradite him. Instead it opened its own criminal investigations. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Aliyev associate arrested over money laundering investigation Rakhat Aliyev: the Kazakh exile is the subject of accusations of torture Journalist Alexander Narodetsky is a 1% shareholder in a company whose assets are frozen by court order THE magisterial inquiry into the tragedy that led to the sinking of the fishing boat Simshar in July 2008 has been delivered to the At- torney General, but police sources have told MaltaToday the inquiry will be re-opened by another mag- istrate. According to this newspaper's sources, Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna's inquiry was completed and presented to the Attorney General. But "loose ends" and some "unanswered questions" will see the Attorney General's office resend the inquiry to another magistrate, the police source said. A preliminary inquiry by mari- time law expert Dr Ann Fenech, tabled in the House of Representa- tives, had found no evidence to contradict the version of events of the sole survivor of the tragedy, Si- mon Bugeja. Fenech said there was limited evi- dence to either contradict or cor- roborate Bugeja's testimony. Four people died during the ill- fated fishing trip, including Bugeja's 11-year-old son Theo, his 61-year- old father Carmelo, Noel Carabott, 33, and Somali national Abdulrah- man Gedi, 21. According to Bugeja, a fire on board the Simshar led to an ex- plosion that consumed the entire boat and threw his crew overboard. Bugeja spent an incredible eight days at sea before being recovered by a fishing boat that was sent out to find him. "It is not possible to conclude with any degree of cer- tainty that the events which sur- rounded the casualty affecting the vessel Simshar as explained by the sole survivor actually took place exactly the way he said they did," Fenech said. Fenech had said that save for four areas which threw some doubt over the recollection of the witness and which produce some inconsistency in those areas, she did not come across any evidence to "seriously challenge the important parts of the evidence" given by Bugeja. Fenech said the four areas which threw some doubts on Bugeja's ac- count related to the explosion fol- lowed by the fire, his account that none of the other persons with him were injured during the explosion and fire, his account on the dura- tion of the fire and what happened to the life raft during or after the explosion. Fenech also put paid to rumours that the boat had been attacked by foreign fishermen, who shot at the vessel repeatedly, leading to an ex- plosion on board. "In the 11 months of the inquiry I have come across no evidence that would suggest any of the above are anything more than unsubstantiated rumour." MORE • Simshar reviewed by Teodor Reljic, in FILM page 34 AG reverting Simshar inquiry to new magistrate