U.S. congressman calls to investigate Rakhat Aliyev

American congressman Brad Sherman has called the European Commission to investigate into the allegations of human rights violations against former Kazakhstan ambassador to Austria Rakhat Aliyev who currently resides in Malta, Malta Today writes. The Maltese court stated earlier that the police had no legal grounds to investigate into the accusations against Aliyev of torturing bodyguards of a former Kazakhstan Prime-Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin in 2000. Aliyev allegedly tried to force a confession that Akezhan Kazhegeldin was planning a coup out of them. In his letter to the European Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding and German MEP and chairman of the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee Klaus-Heiner Leine, Sherman called the EU and Maltese authorities to thoroughly investigate the crimes allegedly committed by Aliyev. "Among the most serious allegations against Aliyev are charges put forward by Satzahn Ibrayev and Petr Afanasenko, bodyguards for Kazhegeldin, contending that Aliyev tortured them in order to induce them to falsely implicate their boss in a coup against the Kazakh president in 1998-99,” the congressman, who is also a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote. Earlier Kazhegeldin and two of his bodyguards promised to seek justice in the European Court of Human Rights if Maltese law-enforcement authorities refused to initiate a case against Rakhat Aliyev. “There are also allegations against Aliyev made in various jurisdictions of the EU, which include money laundering and murder. I have no way of judging the veracity of the allegations, however as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I believed these serious allegations should be examined,” Sherman added. Aliyev’s whereabouts in Malta since 2010 were uncovered when his former lawyer, Pio Valletta, filed a 1.5 million Euro claim in relation to the legal services he rendered to Aliyev. It turned out that Valletta, being the Director of Fort Cambridge plc, advised Aliyev’s wife Elnar Shorazova to purchase one of the company’s apartments in Malta to give Aliyev a chance to receive the permanent residence status on the island. According to the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, Aliyev’s money were transferred to Malta and then to the tax heaven of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Besides, a Viennese prosecutor has already started a criminal investigation on the allegation of Aliyev organizing the murder of Nurbank’s top managers.