Aliyev's death was definitely not suicide - lawyer

Rakhat Aliyev’s former lawyer said that he could only speculate who was behind the death of his client but he was completely certain that it was not a case of suicide.

Austrian lawyer Eirch Gemeiner, who represented Aliyev and now represents his widow Elnara Shorazova, described Aliyev as a cheerful person, one who was not suicidal.  Aliyev was found hanged in his Austrian prison cell at the end of February.

Gemeiner, interviewed by The Malta Independent, and Shorazova maintain that he was either murdered or forced to commit suicide. Gemeiner said that Aliyev was looking forward to the trial, a chance for him to clear his name in the 2011 murder of two bankers.

Between 1983 and 2007, Aliyev was married to the eldest daughter of Kazakhstan’s leader Nursultan Nazarbayev and held a number of diplomatic posts within the regime, including heading the country’s tax police, deputy chief of its security service and ambassador to Austria. It was on his second posting as ambassador to Austria, in 2007, that his fracture with Nazarbayev became final and he was relieved of his post and his diplomatic immunity.

Shortly after taking control of Kazakh bank Nurbank, two senior officials went missing. In 2008, Aliyev was convicted of plotting a coup against the president and sentenced to 40 years behind bars. In 2011, the bodies of the two bank officials were discovered and led to accusations of murder.

His proximity to the Kazakh regime granted Aliyev insight into the authorities’ workings and secrets. This, Gemeiner says, was why the regime considered him dangerous and tried its best to silence him.

Aliyev was poisoned while in Austria in 2007 – medical tests revealed liver damage and small metal objects in his body, findings consistent with heavy metal poisoning.

Gemeiner went on to say that Aliyev was so confident in his eventual acquittal that he was planning a return to politics, with the intention of exposing what he knew about Kazakhstan’s leadership.