New developments:
First of all, in a nice Americanizing of the names of other states’ scandals, there was what was once labelled “Kazakhgate“, which had to do with corruption, independent oil companies, and post-Soviet political economy; now we have “Rakhat-gate”, which is what this post is all about. This is an update on the deposed: fall of Rakhat Aliev (also spelled Rahat Aliyev), the President of Kazakhstan's former son-in-law, who was married to Darigha Nazarbaeva, owned a good portion of Nurbank and almost all of the Kazakhstani media empire. You’ll have to go here for all the back story: there's just not room in one post to contain the kidnapping, money laundering, elections & constitutional amendments, familial dynamics, and murderous aspects so far discovered.
Where the bodies are buried:
Yesterday, Joanna Lillis wrote for Eurasianet that a slain journalist's body was exhumed in a previously unknown grave in Southern Kazakhstan by Interior Ministry officials. The journalist, identified as Anastasiya Novikova, was apparently in some extremis when she died–with multiple fractures, which might indicate torture or some other violent end. She had disappeared in 2004. Two circumstances make this story particularly salacious: First, she did not die in Kazakhstan, but rather in Lebanon, and her body was transferred from Lebanon to an unmarked grave near Taraz, Kazakhstan–bypassing normal customs and air travel venues. Second, she is reputed to have been Mr. Aliev's lover, and later, his cousin through marriage to Mr. Daniyar Esten. Mr. Esten is alleged to have accompanied his wife's remains to the isolated burial site.
Speculation about the reasons and cause of Ms. Novikova's death and the later disposition of the body is rife. Some analysts believe that Kazakhstan's Interior Ministry has conveniently resurrected Ms. Novikova in order to strengthen the case toward Mr. Aliev's extradition from Austria to Kazakhstan. Mr. Aliev is charged in Kazakhstan for allegedly torturing three Nurbank officials, two of whom were found dead months later. He is also allegedly involved in financial irregularities at Nurbank.
Unspoken in the assumption of a “convenient discovery” is that Interior Ministry officials (and perhaps even the Nazarbaev family) knew Mr. Novikova's burial arrangements all along. I find it quite likely that this knowledge was known in private circles. But I don't find the exhumation for purposes of extradition to be as likely a theory: it's just too crude for dealing with Europe. Kazakhstan is much better than this at diplomacy, and Europeans are already looking for reasons to deny Kazakhstan in its troubled OSCE leadership bid. And in the case of Mr. Aliev v. Republic of Kazakhstan, no one involved is going to come out with an unscathed reputation.
There is at least one other possibility: that exhumation of this poor woman is meant to send a concrete tit-for-tat message to Mr. Aliev about spilling past indiscretions. It is in this context that any affair or family relationship between Mr. Aliev and Ms. Nokirova is relevant, because it gives a personal resonance to the legal framework. If so, then the message would be this: be careful, Mr. Aliev, in raising past indiscretions–because for every secret you reveal, we can produce another indiscretion in return.
Maybe time will tell what the real motivations are: the case is exceedingly complicated, and we onlookers will languish for privileged knowledge . . . the Rakhat-gate scandal exists on the messy borders of law, politics, family, and privilege, where the emotional and the practical coexist in uneasy but intimate relations.
Meanwhile, back in Austria:
The Austrian government has denied the extradition of Mr. Aliev to Kazakhstan. William Kole at AP news reports:
VIENNA, Austria: A federal court on Wednesday rejected Kazakhstan's request to have its ex-ambassador to Austria ‚ a former son-in-law of the Central Asian nation's autocratic president ‚ extradited to face kidnapping charges in his homeland.
The Vienna court ruled that Rakhat Aliyev should not be sent back to Kazakhstan because he would not receive a fair trial there, said Gerhard Jarosch, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office.
Aliyev, 44, was arrested in Vienna on June 1 on an international warrant charging him with the alleged kidnappings of two senior managers of a Kazakh bank he controls.
Aliyev, who was released on €1 million (US$1.38 million) bail, had contended the charges were fabricated on orders of President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
“I always saw myself as the victim of a plot,” Aliyev said in a statement issued late Wednesday. “I had the utmost confidence in Austrian law.”
Jarosch said Wednesday's ruling meant Aliyev was a free man. Aliyev said he planned to take a vacation in London “to recover from the strain of the past months.”
As I noted previously, there are precedents in international law for European Courts to refuse extradition of defendants based upon the legal mores of the country requesting extradition. However, I’m not sure a London vacation is the best compromise between lofty Euro-goals and real justice: two Nurbank officials remain dead, and somebody murdered them.
However, Mr. Aliev is not out of the witness box yet: two cases still outstanding outside of Kazakhstan are still in progress: the much-stalled Kazakhgate case, noted above, and some burgeoning Austrian money-laundering investigations in which Mr. Aliev is alleged to have some knowledge and/or interest.
Conclusion:
Not yet: it's not over yet. Except for Kazakhstan's OSCE bid, which I think is definitely over now.