Aliyev's accomplices back in custody

Vienna Court of Appeal рфы overturned the release from custody of Alnur Musayev and Vadim Koshlyak - defendants in the case of ex-ambassador of Kazakhstan in Austria Rakhat Aliyev, Tengrinews reports citing Nachrichten. They are now back in pre-trial custody.

Earlier, the court released the former head of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan Alnur Musayev and former security staff of the President of Kazakhstan Vadim Koshlyak. But, the prosecutor's office appealed the decision and the court granted the prosecutor's request.

Both men were arrested in their homes and provided no resistance. They are now back in Vienna&rsquos Josefstadt prison.

Alnur Musayev and Vadim Koshlyak are accused in conspiring with Rakhat Aliyev, an ex-ambassador of Kazakhstan in Vienna, to abduct and murder two top managers of Kazakhstan's Nurbank Zholdas Timraliyev and Aibar Khasenov in 2007.

The two were released on 29 April after a three-judge panel ruled that there was no longer sufficient evidence to keep them in custody.

The prosecutor filed a complaint against the ruling. According to reports, the court found it especially regrettable that the Court of First Instance released the two men too early - namely after only a few days of hearings. The Higher Regional Court decided in the public prosecutor&rsquos favor.

The main defendant in the case &ndash Rakhat Aliyev &ndash was found dead in his prison cell in Vienna on 24 February. He was hanging from a hook in the bathroom of his solitary confinement, where he was moved just days prior to his death from a three-person cell. He allegedly received death threats and was blackmailed, so he requested a transfer to a solitary cell.

The fugitive tycoon from Kazakhstan, Aliyev was arrested in Vienna on June 5, 2014 in connection with the murder of two Kazakh bankers that he allegedly committed in 2007 in Kazakhstan.

The Austrian prosecutors found that shortly before the two bankers disappeared, Rakhat Aliyev was planning to sell his bank &ndash Nurbank, where the two men were employed. An audit of the bank&rsquos records discovered dozens of millions of overdue loans extended to borrowers affiliated with the bank's employees or former employees. Rakhat Aliyev allegedly began suspecting that some of the bank's managers were enriching themselves at his expense.

One of those bad loans was a $30 million loan to Aybar Khasenov&rsquos company. Another top manager who is purported to had been suspected by Aliyev is Zholdas Timraliyev. Aliyev accused him of receiving kickbacks for authorizing loans that were at the bank's disadvantage.

Aliyev and two of his accomplices allegedly tried to make Timraliyev and Khasenov confess to these actions and return the stolen assets. The three were ready to use &ldquoforce, threats and deprivations of liberty if necessary,&rdquo according to the Austrian prosecutors version. The two bankers were eventually killed in February 2007.

The case became one of the most difficult in the history of the Austrian Justice. More than 90 witnesses have been questioned, mostly via a video conference.

By Dinara Urazova