Kazakh millionaire Rakhat Aliyev cannot be investigated by the Maltese police for alleged crimes against humanity as he did not qualify as a permanent resident in Malta, a magistrate has ruled.
Magistrate Aaron Bugeja said former Police Commissioner had been justified in his refusal to investigate a criminal complaint filed by Mr Aliyev’s two former bodyguards who are insisting he had tortured and framed them.
He upheld the arguments made in court by Deputy Attorney General Donatella Frendo Dimech that Malta was “out of jurisdiction” to investigate the complaints of alleged human rights violations made against the former Kazakh diplomat because Mr Aliyev did not qualify as a permanent residents as prescribed by law.
Dr Frendo Dimech appeared for the Police Commissioner in a challenge brought by Pyotr Afanasenko and Satzhan Ibraev, who are claiming they were subjected to torture while being interrogated and while in prison in 2000, to force their admission they knew about a planned a coup d’état against President Nursultan Nazarbayev – then father-in-law to Mr Aliyev.
Mr Aliyev was at the time deputy head of the Kazakh secret service.
Magistrate Bugeja heard the entire issue revolved around the technical interpretation given to the term “permanent resident” in the Criminal Code.
Here it is specified that a permanent resident is a person who would have obtained a permit of residence in accordance with the provisions of the Immigration Act.
The court heard that at the time when the criminal complaint was filed, Mr Aliyev was married to Elnara Shorazova, an Austrian national. In 2010, he was granted a residency permit but a year later, he renounced permanent residency status when he was granted a residency card as the spouse of an EU citizen, which gives him freedom of movement.
Therefore, the court said, Mr Aliyev and his wife were no longer considered as permanent residents and could not be tried.
Magistrate Bugeja said that it had been proven that Mr Aliyev was residing in Malta between 2010 and 2013 and that between 2010 and 2011 he was a permanent resident. However, he ruled it had not been proven he was a permanent resident when the complaint was filed.