Kazhegeldin applied to Maltese court to make police investigate Aliyev

Former Prime-Minister of Kazakhstan Akezhan Kazhegeldin has applied to Maltese court with a complaint against nonfeasance of the local police that refused to investigate allegations against Rakhat Aliyev who is still believed to be living in Malta, Malta Today writes. Representative of former PM and two of his bodyguards applied to court after the Commissioner of Police John Rizzo refused to investigate torture cases against Aliyev. He will ask the judge to make the investigators file a case. According to the magazine, earlier police refused to accept four claims on tortures and crimes against humanity committed by Aliyev in 2000. German and Maltese lawyers were four times refused a request to investigate the evidence that Aliyev tortured Kazhegeldin’s bodyguards Satzhan Ibrayev and Pyotr Afanasenko. The numerous requests to Police Commissioner John Rizzo and assistant commissioner Andrew Seychell to investigate Aliyev have now been followed by the police challenge in the Maltese court. "I regard it as being scandalous and extremely unjust that within the European Union, it appears, in order to go unpunished it is simple enough to move from one country to another," German politician Lothar de Maizière representing the former prime-minister and his bodyguards told MaltaToday. "The Maltese police are refusing to investigate Aliyev's crimes because, allegedly, he is not on the island. It is well known that Rakhat Aliyev and his family live in Malta. He has invested huge sums in real estate and created a holding for the management of property in various European countries," said de Maizière who believes that Maltese court with oblige police to start the investigation. "Where will Aliyev go next: England, Greece, Romania? And will my clients, who were tortured and illegally imprisoned by him, be forced to travel to all these countries in search of justice? "Europol and Eurojust are not trying to find Aliyev because there has been no inquiry or request from the national justice authority. Had we been dealing with a minor forger of banknotes the entire might of the European system would be used to search for him. But, in a case of crimes against humanity committed in distant Kazakhstan, no one is concerned. "I am convinced the Maltese court will take a decision that will oblige the police to carry out an investigation into the statement of Satzhan Ibraev and those who suffered alongside him at the hands of Rakhat Aliev," the lawyer is quoted by Malta Today as saying. Last December Kazhegeldin announced that he was to get the European Union to put Rakhat Aliyev on the wanted list.