Maltese Foreign Minister accused of receiving 150 thousand Euro from Aliyev

Maltese Foreign Minister and member of the European Commission Tonio Borg was accused of receiving a bribe of 150 thousand Euro from former Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Austria Rakhat Aliyev in return for the residence permit, Malta Today writes. A journalist of the German magazine Euractiv.de addressed the spokesperson at the briefing of the European Commission with a question whether the officials were aware that prominent members of the European Parliament were looking into accusations of bribery against Borg related to granting residence permit to Aliyev. The accusations were news to the commission's spokesperson, who declined to comment the query, but the Minister himself called this accusations "gross calumny and lie". According to German media, relationships between Borg and Aliyev became a key issue during his interview by MEPs to become Commissioner for health and consumer policy. “Borg should expect questions on the personal role of the foreign minister with the generous provision of a residence permit for wealthy immigrants... Eurojust, the European Parliament and the European Commission have already dealt with the case of Rakhat Aliyev, who faces serious human rights violations and torture claims, and is suspected of the murder of two bankers and suspected in several European countries of money laundering," the German magazine states. As reported by Malta Today, as part of Aliyev's litigation with his former lawyer Pio Valletta, the latter revealed that obtaining permanent residence status on Malta for Aliyev did not go smooth in 201: his application ran into trouble with the police over an Interpol alert that had been issued against Aliyev. In the list of services he rendered to the couple, Valletta demanded €150,000 because of the "difficulties" he encountered in procuring the permanent residence status, "due to the non-approval from the police authorities" on account of the Interpol alert, Malta Today wrote. Aliyev was convicted durante absentia of murder of top-managers of Nurbank Zholdas Timraliyev and Aibar Khassenov in 2011 after their bodies were found in Almaty outskirts. In 2008 he was charged with several heavy crimes in Kazakhstan, including betrayal of the motherland, preparation of the revolution and kidnapping (Timraliyev and Khassenov). The sentence was given durante absentia, as Aliyev was hiding in Austria since 2007. He currently lives in Malta, where he was interrogated by Vienna prosecutors this spring.