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Former East German prime minister dubs Malta’s handling of Aliyev case ‘scandalous’
Tonio Borg thrust into the limelight of hunt for Kazakh billionaire over Maltese residence permit.
8 November 2012, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
3 min read
Lothar de Maizière, former East Germany prime minister, said Malta should be held to account on its handling of the Aliyev case.
Lothar de Maizière, the first - and last - democratically elected prime minster of East Germany before reunification, has lambasted Malta's "lax handling of rich human rights violators" as he prepares to bring to Malta an international campaign to bring former Kazakh diplomat and multi-millionaire Rakhat Aliyev (pictured below) to justice.
Today a Berlin lawyer representing former Kazakhstan prime minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin and his two bodyguards, the Christian-democrat politician has hit out at the choice of Malta's foreign minister Tonio Borg as commissioner-designate to the EU, ostensibly on the residence permit awarded to Aliyev who for some time was a resident in Malta with his wife.
Aliyev, formerly the son-in-law of Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev, is also being investigated by Austrian prosecutors on suspicion of having commissioned the double-murder of two bankers; while De Maizière is seeking his prosecution for allegedly torturing Kazhegeldin's bodyguards as an act of revenge against the Kazakh prime minister.
Several victims' campaigns are 'hunting' down Aliyev to bring him to justice and focus has now turned to Malta:
"Six months ago I was in Malta to rebuke the sloppy investigation that was being carried out on Aliyev. At that time I was told that the Maltese Attorney General will handle the Aliyev case... nothing has been done so far," de Maizière said.
MaltaToday has previously reported that Austrian prosecutor Bettina Wallner questioned Aliyev at the Maltese courts for three days in April 2012 over the bankers' murder investigation.
Reports to Malta's financial intelligence analysis unit, headed by Attorney General Peter Grech, have also been made by another victims' campaign tracking down an alleged money laundering network.
"This should trigger some form of reflection," de Maizière said of the coming hearing of Tonio Borg in the European Parliament.
"Had Aliyev been some counterfeiter he would be prosecuted immediately. But not when he is accused of such serious cases of human rights violations. I find this scandalous and extremely unfair, because it looks like human rights violators can travel from one EU country to the other with impunity."
As Borg prepares for his hearing before MEPs on 13 November, the foreign minister has been thrust into the limelight of the Austrian-German interest in Aliyev: mainly because he is listed as a court witness in a case brought by Aliyev's former lawyer Pio Valletta, against Aliyev and his wife Elnara Shorazova for unpaid legal fees. Raising suspicions about Aliyev's sojourn in Malta is the fact that Valletta charged the nothing short of a cool €150,000 because of the "difficulties" he encountered in procuring the residence permit, "due to the non-approval from the police authorities" on account of an Interpol alert that had been issued against Aliyev.
The Interpol alert has been since repealed.
But this detail would have formed the basis of a bold question put to the European Commission's spokesperson on Tuesday afternoon by a euractiv.com senior editor who asked whether Brussels was aware that "MEPs were investigating allegations of a €150,000 bribe" paid to Borg. The commissioner-designate has denied such an allegation as a "gross calumny and a lie".
Although at the time of application it was evident that the police had not issued approval for the permit, at some point this objection was overturned: indeed assistant commissioner Andrew Seychell, responsible for the visa section, was also summoned as a witness in the Pio Valletta case.
The foreign ministry's spokesperson Melvyn Mangion (who is summoned in this civil lawsuit as a witness as well) had told MaltaToday both him and Borg never met either Pio Valletta or Alijev to issue the residence status. "Alijev has a residence permit issued by the Austrian government, he is married to an EU citizen, and as such enjoys freedom of movement and residence," Mangion had told MaltaToday.
"Should Austrian authorities issue a European arrest warrant this will be executed by the Maltese authorities. Should new irregularities arise other than those on which the extradition request was based, this residence permit will be reviewed."
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
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@ fenea, one need not fall to know that if one does it hurts. Simple unblinkered common sense. You must trace some and ingest it.
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Lothar de Maizière, former East Germany prime minister.......you better investigate the millions of east german people killed in your country. @BETTER FUTURE........jaqaw kont involut fl'investigazzjoni.
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@ still worried. You cannot mix these two cases. In the Dalli case, there was no exchange of money, and no one is accused of actually pocketing any money. In Tonio Borg's case, the allegation is clear. These residence permit requests are thoroughly vetted by a group of people. In fact, even the police recommended against this permit being issued. BUT IT WAS ISSUED NEVERTHELESS.
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Dan huwa biss hmieg fuq persuna ta’ integrita. L-ewwel hag ail-persuna involuta hija membru ta’ cittadina tal-eu allura ma tistax titkecca u trid tinghata residenza bilfors. It-tieni din tnehhiet mill-lista tal-alerts tal-europol. It-tielet l-austria u ebda pajjiz iehor ma talab lil malta testradixxi lil dan bl-uniku mezz permezz ta’ European arrest warrant. Ir-rabgha dan fil-fatt kellu residenza austrijaka u jekk malta tatu residenza allura l-austrija zbaljat ukoll. Ir-regoli huma cari u li malta kellha bilfors tatih f’dawn ic-cirkontanzi redidenza inkella seta’ jfittex ghad-danni lil malta. Mhux sewwa ghax xi hadd barrani b’xi ghajnuna interna jipprova jhammeg lil persuna maltija.
Jekk ghandhom provi li dr. borg ircieva xi 150,000 ghandhom jintbaghtu l-ag u l-abbli kummissarju halli jinvestigaw imma mhux sewwa jintefa tajn ghal skopijiet ohra.
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Dan huwa biss hmieg fuq persuna ta’ integrita. L-ewwel hag ail-persuna involuta hija membru ta’ cittadina tal-eu allura ma tistax titkecca u trid tinghata residenza bilfors. It-tieni din tnehhiet mill-lista tal-alerts tal-europol. It-tielet l-austria u ebda pajjiz iehor ma talab lil malta testradixxi lil dan bl-uniku mezz permezz ta’ European arrest warrant. Ir-rabgha dan fil-fatt kellu residenza austrijaka u jekk malta tatu residenza allura l-austrija zbaljat ukoll. Ir-regoli huma cari u li malta kellha bilfors tatih f’dawn ic-cirkontanzi redidenza inkella seta’ jfittex ghad-danni lil malta. Mhux sewwa ghax xi hadd barrani b’xi ghajnuna interna jipprova jhammeg lil persuna maltija.
Jekk ghandhom provi li dr. borg ircieva xi 150,000 ghandhom jintbaghtu l-ag u l-abbli kummissarju halli jinvestigaw imma mhux sewwa jintefa tajn ghal skopijiet ohra.
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What happened to Mr Dalli is happening to Mr Borg somebody else took the money useing their names.
Luke Camilleri •
Europe is finally waking up to the goings on in Malta , INVESTIGATIONS SHOULS EVEN GO FURTHER right into "multi-million COMMISSIONED with multi-million tendering, Governing without Parliament majority, Long very long Parliament recesses running into months, state broadcasting PBS with its-Newsroom , controlled by the Ruling' Party's People !
Wake Up Europe and do some serious investigating over here!
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Ghalxejn tilghabuha tal-vergni u martri - il-hut minn rasa tinten. Issa sta ghall-Parlament Ewropew jiddecidi.
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Dear Mr Lothar de Maizière, Now you can realise what I and others like me have been through the last 25 and half years under PN governments. Unfortunately we cannot go anywhere. All institutions follow the 'omerta', 'pontius pilate' or double approach methods, so Maltese citizen who happen to end up on the black list of this government because of political reasons, end up with their life ruined.
What I noticed in this case are the following: a) according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, it is this Ministry which is responsible for visas, namely Dr Tonio Borg; b) Dr Tonio Borg graduated in law specialising in human rights and in 1990 was a member of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Degrading Treatment, so he can understand much better than most what torture entails, and more importantly, in our case degrading treatment.
