Rakhat Aliyev arrested in Vienna

Kazakh exile Rakhat Aliyev has been arrested in Vienna, according to Austria Presse Agentur.

Citing Aliyev's lawyer Mandfred Ainedter, the reports says that Aliyev turned himself in to police voluntarily because he wanted to cooperate with the investigation.

An arrest warrant for the Kazakh leader's ex son-in-law was issued on May 19, 2014. Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck has not confirmed Aliyev's arrest so far.

Aliyev is under criminal prosecution in Austria over his alleged involvement in the murder of two bankers in 2008.

Furthermore, Aliyev has had his assets frozen by Maltese courts as part of a money laundering inquiry. The Maltese investigation is being conducted in parallel with a similar inquiry underway in Krefeld, Germany.

In March, the Criminal Court  issued a freezing order on the assets owned by Aliyev, in the first confirmed action that the embattled millionaire was being investigated over money laundering.

The freezing order was issued against Aliyev, 52, and his Austrian wife Elnara Shorazova, and a host of companies he is connected to.

The freezing order has been communicated to Banif Bank and Bank of Valletta, as well as the inland revenue and VAT departments, the public registry and the financial services authority, Ganado Trustees & Fiduciaries and Iuris Fiduciaries.

The order prohibits Aliyev and his wife Elnara Shorazova, and the companies mentioned, from transferring or otherwise disposing of any movable or immovable property.