The ex-husband of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's eldest daughter has surrendered himself to police after evading arrest for seven years in his home country following the death of two bankers. 52 year-old Rakhat Aliyev has been charged in the kidnapping and murder of Nurbank OJSC chief executive officer Abilmazhen Gilimov and his deputy, Zholdas Timraliyev, Bloomberg reported.
Aliyev had turned himself over to police yesterday in Austria and will remain in a Vienna jail until officials finish the probe into the murder of Gilimov and Timraliyev, Austrian prosecutors have said in a statement. According to Aliyev's lawyer, Manfred Ainedter, his client had voluntarily turned himself in and had cooperated with authorities.
Aliyev, who has a 5.2% share in Nurbank OJSC, allegedly had a role in the kidnapping and murder of the two bank executives.
The case of the two bankers had garnered international attention from the European Union, the news agency said. Gilimov and Timraliyev's bodies were found on the outskirts of Almaty in May 2011. Austria, under international rules, has an obligation to probe and try Aliyev if they have suspected him of wrongdoing. Aliyev has since reportedly denied the charges.
Kazahkstan has already charged Aliyev in the kidnapping of Gilimov and Timraliyev back in 2007. Aliyev, who is a former Kazahk diplomat who had served in Vienna, was refused to be extradited by Austrian prosecutors as it was said that he could not be guaranteed to receive a fair trial in his home country. Aliyev nonetheless was tried in Kazahkstan in absentia for plotting a coup and was handed out a 20-year sentence.
This is not the first time Alyev had ran trouble with the law. In December, Kazahk prosecutors decided to reopen a probe into the murder of opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbayev, who was shot down along with his driver and assistant in February 2006. The case was reportedly renewed after the killer who was convicted in the fatal shooting changed his testimony and pinpointed Aliyev as the one who ordered the killings.
