02 May 2015 | 03:17

Aliyev's accomplices released from detention in Austrian courtroom

Co-defendents of Rakhat Aliyev, former head of the Kazakh secret service KNB Alnur Mussayev (R) and Vadim Koshlyak, sit in the dock before their trial in Vienna April 14, 2015 ©REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bad

Former Head of the National Security Agency of Kazakhstan Alnur Mussayev and ex-presidential bodyguard Vadim Koshlyak, who are standing trial in Vienna as Rakhat Aliyev’s accomplices to murder, have been released from custody in the courtroom, Tengrinews cites AFP and The Malta Independent.

Former Head of the National Security Agency of Kazakhstan Alnur Mussayev and ex-presidential bodyguard Vadim Koshlyak, who are standing trial in Vienna as Rakhat Aliyev’s accomplices to murder, have been released from custody in the courtroom, Tengrinews cites AFP and The Malta Independent.

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Viennese court acquits two men of murder in high-profile Aliyev's case; Kazakhstan contends Austrian judge biased

27 July 2015, 16:25

Rakhat Aliyev, ex-Ambassador to Austria formerly married to Dariga Nazarbayeva, was found dead on February 24 in his solitary confinement in a Viennese prison of Josenstadt. He was moved there from a three-person cell just days before the apparent suicide. However, his lawyers still doubt that his death was a suicide.

Aliyev and his two accomplices were to stand trial on the murder of two top managers of Nurbank, who disappeared in 2007 and were found only three years later. At the time, Rakhat Aliyev was a de facto owner of the bank and purportedly had financial interest in abducting, torturing and killing the two bankers.

The trial began on April 14 and has been dubbed among the most complicated in the history of Austrian justice. It involves more than 60 witnesses and is scheduled to last close to a month.

A spokesman for the criminal court in Vienna said that Mussayev and Koshlyak were released due to contradictions in the evidence from Kazakhstani witnesses, which led the court to conclude that there was no reason to keep them detained any longer. The trial itself continues nonetheless.

According to the main lawyer of the defense Klaus Ainedter, one detail provided by the coroner was crucial to the release: the bodies of the two bankers were buried in such as way as if the killers wanted them to be discovered and identified, The Malta Independent reported.

By Dinara Urazova

Vienna bank Central Asia CIS Kazakh Kazakhstan murder news Rakhat Aliyev Austria