Before his death, Rakhat Aliyev consistently maintained he was being persecuted by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

A Vienna judge has confirmed claims by Rakhat Aliyev that accusations against him were based on manipulated evidence by the Kazakh authorities persecuting him, according to a decree seen by Times of Malta.

Dr Aliyev, the late former son-in-law of Kazakhstan’s autocratic president, was found hanged in a Vienna prison in February. That was almost two years since he had left Malta, where he had been seeking refuge after falling out with the Kazakh regime.

He had consistently maintained his innocence during his stay in Malta in the face of accusations that he had murdered two bankers in 2007. He turned himself in to the Austrian authorities (having been an ambassador there) after giving a rare interview to The Sunday Times of Malta in July 2013.

In the interview, he said that his country’s secret service had established a network with a mission to “kidnap or kill” him. It was a view supported by Judge Andreas Bohm who, in a decree, spoke of a possible frame-up by the Kazakh secret service.

The entire abduction and murder case was construed retroactively to eliminate Aliyev

“There is a considerable indication of the allegation by the deceased Aliyev that the two bank managers were actually killed by the Kazakh secret service and that the entire abduction and murder case was construed retroactively in order to eliminate Aliyev and persons close to him,” Judge Bohm concluded.

After eight days and hearing eight witnesses, the Austrian judge in the case decided to release the dead man’s two alleged associates in the 2007 murders. The detention was revoked “on grounds of the elimination of strong suspicion”.

Dr Aliyev’s lawyers said he would have still been alive today if the Austrian authorities had listened to arguments that evidence against him was not to be trusted.

Vienna had refused to extradite Dr Aliyev to Kazakhstan, fearing he would not be given a fair trial.

The judge’s conclusions clearly support Dr Aliyev’s assertions that witnesses and evidence had been fabricated by Kazakh authorities.

The judge refers to “a strong indication… [that] Kazakh authorities had manipulated evidence, in this case prepared the lists of call data retroactively, to subsequently submit false witness interrogation protocols building on them”.

When Dr Aliyev was found hanged in his cell, the Austrian authorities concluded it was suicide. However, his lawyers insist he was murdered. Results from a second autopsy and a toxicology test are still pending.

One of the witnesses for Kazakhstan is already facing prosecution for giving false testimony under oath.

Meanwhile, the President of the autocratic oil-rich central Asian state, Nursultan Nazarbayev, recently extended his grip on power, winning 97.7 per cent of the vote in an election, which Western observers have said was deeply flawed.