[attach id=406744 size="medium"]Rakhat Aliyev was found dead in a Vienna prison early yesterday morning.[/attach]

The Austrian lawyer of Rakhat Aliyev, the Kazakh who for years sought refuge in Malta after falling out with the regime, has difficulty accepting that his client’s death – he was found dead in an Austrian prison yesterday – was a suicide.

In an interview with Times of Malta, Dr Ainedter said the once son-in-law to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was in high spirits during his last visit. He was the last person to see Mr Aliyev, apart from prison authorities.

“When I met him [a day earlier] he was highly motivated. He was working on his trial scheduled for around Easter.

“He was finally given a computer so he was able to work and he was doing so ambitiously. He had no reason at all to commit suicide,” Dr Ainedter said.

Mr Aliyev’s body was found early in the morning yesterday in a Vienna prison cell where he had been in solitary confinement. When he was found in a bathroom, it seemed like he had hanged himself.

Yet it is a version of events the lawyer has trouble digesting since Mr Aliyev had been persecuted by the Kazakh secret service for a number of years.

He left Malta soon after a rare interview with this newspaper in July 2013, fearing for his life. His country’s secret service had established a network in Malta with a mission to “kidnap or kill” him, he said, accepting that this was the price he had to pay for his freedom.

Mr Aliyev’s trouble with the regime started in May 2007 after he strongly objected to his then father-in-law’s decision to amend the constitution to become president for life.

He was sentenced in absentia to 40 years’ imprisonment for a number of crimes, including the kidnap and torture of two bankers. He vehemently denied all charges and insisted it was the Kazakh dictatorship’s method of eliminating dissidents.

When in Austria, Mr Aliyev, in his early 50s, turned himself in. Kazakhstan attempted to have him extradited but Vienna twice refused because of the former Soviet republic’s human rights record. Austrian authorities feared he would not be given a fair trial in his home country.

The circumstances surrounding his death are now the subject of an investigation. His lawyer, from the reputable Austrian law firm Ainedter and Ainedter, told Times of Malta investigations had to be completed before any firm conclusions could be drawn.

Yet he hoped for the truth to emerge. “Everybody will be questioned, including me, because I was the last person to see him apart from the prison authorities. This case merits an in-depth investigation,” he added.

Mr Aliyev’s death came as a surprise to both his lawyers and his wife, with whom Mr Aliyev has two children. His Austrian wife has stood by him throughout and confirmed they were making plans for the future, which they wanted to build following the release he hoped to obtain.