KZBlog

As many of you have probably read by now, Rakhat Aliyev, the wife of Dariga Nazarbayeva and son-in-law to the President of Kazakhstan is the subject of an international police search. The President has issued an order to arrest Aliyev, he has been reported to Interpol to be extradited to Kazakhstan for investigation, but he is apparently on the run, stating that he wants to stay in Vienna. His homes have been searched. The reason given was his potential involvement in the kidnapping of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Nurbank in February. The wife of the CEO wrote an open letter to the President in the the Press, claiming that her husband had called her from captivity and claimed that Rakhat Aliyev had kidnapped him and personally beaten him. A few days after Mr. Timiraliyev returned, he went off apparently to see the financial police, and has not been seen since. His wife, Armangul Kapasheva, has been making quite a bit of noise, convinced that Aliyev has done something to her husband.

Shortly after that, Aliyev was named Ambassador to Austria, having previously been First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Special Representative to the OSCE in Vienna. Apparently, ambassadors have immunity from prosecution or investigation, even in Kazakhstan–a privilege not enjoyed by Vice Ministers.

While investigations have been ongoing, this case recently came back to the limelight when an employee of KTK television, owned by Mr. Aliyev and Nazarybaeyva, went missing and was found beaten. Then last week, Mr. Gilimov, the Vice Chairman of Nurbank who was kidnapped, gave an interview on Astana television channel.

According to his story (which I have no way of verifying or disproving) there was a meeting at Nurbank at which Aliyev, a major shareholder, was present. At the end of the meeting, Aliyev said that he and Gilimov needed to go to Italy for a meeting with some foreign investors. At the airport, Aliyev’s staff took their passports to check them in, and the two were going to drive directly to the plane, bypassing the gate. However, the assistant returned and said the flight had been cancelled. The two men were then driven to a sauna owned by Aliyev. There Gilimov claims he was relieved of his wallet and cellphone. He was then tied up and Aliyev told him that his passport had been stamped as if he left for Italy. He then asked Gilimovto reconsider a deal regarding selling Nurbank’s share in their Almaty building. He was threatened with a pistol. At some point, Aliyev went to enjoy the sauna, and Aliyev’s assistant was left to watch the prisoner. The assistant apparently gave Gilimov his cellphone and he used it to call his wife, who called the police. When Aliyev returned, Gilimov claims Aliyev got very frightened that the police were on their way and let him go.

Many people have pointed out holes in the above story such as why the assistant gave him his cellphone.

Be that as it may, the accusations are serious, and certainly no one can fault the government for choosing to investigate them. However, the matter is complicated because the order to investigate Aliyev came from the President himself, as the Ministry of Interior Affairs reported. Furthermore, it came after Aliyev printed an article in Caravan newspaper, owned by his wife, claiming that he was being persecuted and slandered by the Minister of Interior Affairs and the akim of Almaty and that both of them were corrupt, though he refrained from naming specific crimes, though he claimed to have extensive knowledge of them. After the investigation was announced, he published a second article, accusing the President of stealing votes and of illegitimately pushing through the amendment to the Constitution that allows Nazarbayev to run for President for as many terms as he wishes to. He wrote in part, “The future belongs to us, not to you, President-for-life!” In the second article he also wrote that he had had plans to run for President, and had told this to his father-in-law, which is why he is being silenced.

Following that article, Aliyev was stripped of his position as ambassador, an order that can only be signed by the President himself. That of course besides dishonoring him, opens Aliyev up to be investigated and now the order has been put forth to arrest him. The Ministry of Interior Affairs claims that they are investigating a criminal group that is responsbile for numerous financial crimes including stealing property and businesses through inside information, extortion and other misdealings, including the kidnapping of Timiraliyev.

It should also be noted that last week, KTK television station was closed for violating the countries Kazakh language law which specifies that half of a networks programming should be in Kazakh. Caravan was closed for as of yet unspecified reasons. Both are owned by Aliyev and his wife and there are few who doubt the selective timing of applying this law to the media outlets.

It is well-known that Aliyev has had long-time ambitions to be President and the amendment to the Constitution certainly hinders his (or anyone’s) chances of being elected as Nursultan Nazarbayev appears to hold a commanding share of the people’s loyalty and votes. This is also not the first time Aliyev has been accused of crimes, and he has a habit of suing his accusers for slander. And winning. To be fair, after the interview with Timiraliyev it would have been hard for the government to avoid investigating Aliyev’s possible involvement, as it would investigate anyone in such circumstances. This investigation may well be a sign of good things, that no longer will power and good connections protect one from responsibility for ones actions–if Aliyev is in fact guilty, of course. However, the timing does make it look very bad, coming only after he criticized the President very strongly. While the local news media is focusing on the damage done to the image country due to the Ambassador being sought for arrest, attention is not being focused on the damage being done to the image of Kazakhstan by the very way the investigation is being carried out. Gazeta.kz, also linked to Aliyev and Nazarbayeva has linked to a number of articles in the international press, including the BBC, Al-Jazeera, and RFE/RL, pointing to the irregular circumstances around the closing of the media outlets.

One other rumor making the rounds, is that the whole controversy is in fact a put-up job to distract from the new amendments, to keep people from discussing the issue of Nazarbayev being able to run for President for life. Some have noted that since Nazarbayev cannot be defeated in an election, the only way for anyone to become President would be if he were to be eliminated. The President may just be trying to secure anyone who might have the motive and the means to kill him, some allege. In any case, the situation is certainly highly unusual and I for one hope that it will at least set a precedent for the rule of law being upheld in Kazakhstan.

The best possible outcome would be if Aliyev gets a fair and public trial and if Mr. Timiraliyev is found unharmed–so that the people have faith in the justice system and so that all of the rumors and accusations surrounding him are brought into the light and judged objectively. It is possible that the people will begin to see that powerful officials, if they commit crimes, can be arrested and brought to trial, which will be fair and just trials. In general, the worst outcome of this whole scandal is that people lose faith in their government and their rulers and that they don’t know who to trust or who to believe. Let us hope that this can be turned around, that the government will act well and honestly to restore that faith.

More can be read on this:

• At The Big Orange
• The account of the arrest order is onNew Eurasia
• The BBC covers it here and here
• The AP discusses the closing of the media companies.

EDIT: And as reported on RFE/RL and on the TV news last night Senior managers of Nurbank, including Gilimov, of fraud. They were questioned yesterday in a formal hearing. The police claim that Timirlaliyev is in fact in hiding from investigation and not being held by anyone.