Rakhat Aliyev is a former Kazakh First Deputy Foreign Minister, Deputy Chair of the Presidential Security Service and former Kazakh Ambassador to Austria. In 2008 he was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment by the Kazakh Criminal Court on charges of creating an organised criminal group, as well as of kidnapping, theft, embezzlement, forgery, extortion and illegal trafficking of arms.

An investigation is one thing, conclusive proof which warrants swift action is another

Additionally, he was condemned to 20 years of correctional labour by the Kazakh Garrison Military Court for an attempted coup d’etat, which also included the theft of arms and explosives.

All this happened in absentia since Aliyev remained in Austria when charged with all these misdemeanours. Of course, the retribution of justice in Kazakhstan is certainly not to be considered the paragon of excellence, and being condemned to jail there may not necessarily mean sure guilt but could instead indicate that Aliyev was no longer on the government’s good books.

However, even the Austrian authorities have been investigating Aliyev since 2008 on 96 alleged cases of money laundering exceeding €100 million. According to Austrian and German investigators, the company Metallwerke Bender Rheinland GmbH, which was closely associated to Aliyev, was right from the beginning of its existence utilised as part of a larger money laundering network controlled by Aliyev.

When in 2010 investigations in Austria – an EU member country- intensified, Aliyev left Vienna and relocated to Malta – another EU member country, where he has been residing till today.

The Maltese authorities granted him a permanent residency permit in January 2011, the same month in which the Metallwerke Bender Rheinland GmbH filed for bankruptcy.

According to Jakob Danckert, a Berlin-based attorney and retired senior prosecutor advising the Kazakh Ministry of Justice, upon relocating to Malta, Aliyev allegedly started to restructure his money-laundering network. This included winding up some of his activities in Germany and Austria and moving the de facto headquarters of his operations to Malta.

The said German lawyer has suggested to the Maltese authorities that they establish ties with the competent law enforcement authorities in Germany and Austria, that they acquaint themselves with the criminal proceedings against Aliyev in Kazakhtan, that they initiate the formation of a “joint investigation team” together with Austria and Germany, to question a Maltese associate of Aliyev. It was also suggested to consider measures assuring that Aliyev does not leave Malta for another country to avoid prosecution and to ascertain whether the suspect and his associates have assets in Malta that could be provisionally seized or frozen.

The response of former Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was that Aliyev was married to an EU citizen and enjoyed free movement across EU member states. The Prime Minster added that, after consulting with the Attorney General, he came to the conclusion that Malta did not have any jurisdiction to investigate the allegations of torture and crimes against humanity Aliyev is accused of. “This position is currently being challenged in a court of magistrates,” Gonzi said.

The Maltese Prime Minister also stressed that all allegations of money laundering against Aliyev should be taken to the police for investigation. Apart from all these accusations of money laundering, Aliyev is also accused of having tortured a number of people. One of his alleged torture victims, Sadjan Ibraev, a former bodyguard to the former Kazakh Prime minister, has come to Malta to appeal to the Malta police to investigate Aliyev’s crimes against humanity. He has appointed as his lawyer a very high profile ex-politician, the last Prime Minister of former East Germany and the only one who was democratically elected in that country, Lothar da Maiziere.

An Austrian lawyer, Gabriel Lansky, is instead representing the widows of murdered bank managers and other victims who had previously worked at Nurbank, that was one of the biggest banks in Kazkhstan and 75 per cent owned by Aliyev as from 1996.

Allegedly, in 2007, a number of Nurbank bank managers were accused of misappropriating money and were tortured by Aliyev in order to confess their misdeeds.

Whether Aliyev is really guilty of all these atrocities and financial movements is still to be ascertained. An investigation is one thing, conclusive proof which warrants swift action is another. As things stand now, it would seem that neither Austria, Germany or Malta have – to date – established such conclusive evidence. In the meantime, he is enjoying his sojourn in the wonderful climate of the deep south Mediterranean.

In the name of justice and clarity, both for his alleged victims and for Aliyev himself, it would be good to verify if the accusations against him hold any ground and if there are any sufficient grounds for prosecution. This clarity is needed to restore confidence in the course of justice.

arnoldcassola@gmail.com

Arnold Cassola is Alternattiva Demokratika spokesman on EU and international affairs.

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