A powerful son-in-law of Kazakhstan's president -- wanted in his homeland in connection with an alleged abduction -- was taken into custody by Austrian police, officials said.
Rakhat Aliyev is accused of involvement in the suspected kidnapping of two senior managers of a bank he controls who have been missing since February. He was arrested on Friday afternoon in Vienna, said Gerald Hesztera, a spokesman for the federal bureau of investigation.
Hesztera declined to provide more details, saying only that Aliyev was arrested mid-afternoon after a hair appointment. Kazakh authorities had issued an international warrant for Aliyev's arrest earlier in the week.
Fabricated
Aliyev is the husband of Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev's daughter Dariga, has rejected the allegations, saying they were fabricated on Nazarbayev's orders.
He has been locked for years in standoff with Nazarbayev, a longtime leader credited with bringing stability and relative prosperity to the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic but accused of authoritarianism.
Aliyev, 44, is suspected of trying to unseat Nazarbayev in 2001, and recently advocated the establishment of a monarchy in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation.
He was fired from his position as deputy foreign minister after the abduction allegations surfaced in February, and was then sent as ambassador to Austria.
Aliyev was dismissed from that position last Saturday, hours after he publicly accused Nazarbayev of a "retreat to totalitarian Soviet past" and said he would run for president in 2012.
Extradition exam
In the next 48 hours, an examining magistrate at a Vienna court will decide whether to extradite Aliyev or release him on bail, prosecution spokesman Gerhard Jarosch told the Austria Press Agency. Kazakhstan filed an extradition request with Austria's Justice Ministry on Wednesday.
Shortly after being taken to the court, Aliyev complained of chest pains and was to be examined by a doctor, APA quoted Jarosch as saying.
Kazakhstan's extradition request also lists six other people who are either staff at the embassy or have a close relationship with Aliyev, APA reported.
Aliyev, a former tax police chief, has substantial business interests. His wife, who controls the country's most powerful media holding, has a seat in parliament and is a deputy chairman of her father's political party.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS