Kazakh Critic Dies in Austrian Jail Cell
Rakhat Aliyev, an opponent and former son-in-law of Kazakhstan's president, was found dead Tuesday of apparent suicide in an Austrian jail just before he was due to testify in an extortion trial, authorities said.
Aliyev, 52, used strips of gauze bandages to hang himself from a coat hook in the bathroom of his Josefstadt jail cell, which he occupied alone, said Peter Prechtl, head of prison administration.
The businessman and former diplomat had been in custody since turning himself in to police in June to face charges he killed two bank managers from Kazakhstan who disappeared in 2007, and whose bodies were found four years later.
Aliyev had denied the accusations and was due to go on trial in April.
A Kazakh court had already convicted him of murder in the case and sentenced him to 40 years in prison. However, Aliyev sought refuge in Austria, which refused to extradite him back to Kazakhstan saying he would not get a fair trial.
Before falling from grace in 2007, the former Kazakh ambassador to Austria was married to Dariga, the eldest daughter Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's president who rules the ex-Soviet republic with an iron grip.
Aliyev's death came ahead of his scheduled testimony Tuesday in the trial of two fellow inmates who he alleged had demanded payment or they would kill him and make it look like a suicide.
"There is a presumption that someone killed him," said Stefan Prochaska, one of Aliyev's lawyers.
Another Aliyev lawyer, Klaus Ainedter, said he has "considerable doubts" his client committed suicide, and demanded a full investigation.
Aliyev frequently talked about his fear of being murdered, even after he stopped sharing a cell with other inmates, a police officer testified Tuesday at the extortion trial.
"For us, it's clearly a suicide," said Prechtl, the prison administrator. "There is not the slightest sign that he was murdered.
Aliyev blamed his fall from grace on his presidential ambitions, which led to him becoming a fierce opponent of Nazarbayev.
However the Kazakh opposition never accepted Aliyev into its fold, alleging he had participated in government political repression since the 1990s.
Nazarbayev, 74, has been at the head of Kazakhstan since its independence in 1991, and since 2010 has held the title "leader of the nation," which accords him lifetime decision-making powers over the country's major policies.
Source: Agence France Presse
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