Exile millionaire Rakhat Aliyev has offered himself to Austrian police for questioning in a fresh probe on murder allegations levelled at him by the regime of his former father-in-law, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Mr Aliyev, who lives in Malta with his Austrian wife, flew to Vienna on Thursday and gave himself up to police authorities.

The Austrians were presented with a signed statement by the Kazakh government in which Mr Aliyev allegedly admits involvement in the murder of two former executives of a bank which he partly owned. He always publicly denounced the allegations as a ploy by the Kazakh regime to frame him because he fell out with his former father-in-law and the Kazakh regime in 2007.

Austria had dismissed the case twice already. It also refused to extradite him, fearing that his rights would be breached. However, the case was reopened on the basis of this new statement.

Mr Aliyev was propelled to power in 1983 when he married the eldest daughter of Mr Nazarbayev, who was a powerful figure in the Communist Party before becoming the country’s first and only president post-independence.

However, the two fell out bitterly after he was sacked as ambassador to Austria and started criticising the regime.

Aside from the allegations levelled at him by the President, Mr Aliyev is also facing a legal battle in Malta initiated by two bodyguards of former Kazakh Prime Minister Akezhan Kazageldin, who accused him of torturing them to extract statements that would frame their former boss.

At the time of this alleged torture, he served as deputy head of the Kazakh infamous secret police.

However, in a rare interview with The Sunday Times of Malta last year, he dismissed them as acting on behalf of the regime.

So far, the Maltese authorities have refused their request to have him tried for torture and crimes against humanity in Malta but their legal battle is ongoing.