Two Kazakhs who were co-accused along with Rakhat Aliyev over the murder of two bankers in 2007 have been acquitted of the charges and walked free out of court this afternoon.

Rakhat Aliyev, a former chief of Kazakhstan’s tax police, head of the state security service and ambassador to Austria, was found hanged in a Vienna prison in February. His lawyers say they doubt this was a case of suicide. He was living in Malta for some time before his incarceration. 

Alnur Mussayev, a former head of the Kazakh intelligence service, and Vadim Koshlyak, a former presidential bodyguard, were accused of aiding Mr Aliyev in the abduction and murder of two bankers of the Kazakh Nurbank in 2007. Aliyev, a former son-in-law of Kazakhstan's authoritarian president, Nursultan Nazarbayev - was a major shareholder in the bank.

The bodies of the bankers were found buried in lime-filled barrels in 2011. Vienna prosecutor Bettina Wallner recently told the court that Aliyev and the two accused had jointly planned the murders. Mr Koshlyak was said to have helped Aliyev to hold the two managers against their will and to force them to hand over shares and property rights. Both men denied the charges.

The two men had earlier this year been released from pre-trial custody. The main lawyer in the criminal case, Klaus Ainedter, told The Malta Independent yesterday that the two men were released over a number of reasons, including the conflicting information coming from the Kazakh authorities.

A source said the verdict meant that, if Mr Aliyev was still alive, he would have also been acquitted of the murder charges.  

Statement by Aliyev's wife 

Rakhat Aliyev’s wife, Elnara Shorazova, issued the following statement shortly after the verdict was announced: “The jury and the Regional Criminal Court of Vienna have today reached a NOT GUILTY verdict for two Kazakh citizens accused of trumped up double murder charges piloted by the oppressive dictatorship of Kazakhstan.

My late husband Dr Rakhat Aliyev was also falsely accused of these murders in relation to this case. As a family, we are relieved to receive this Not Guilty verdict posthumously on his behalf.  

The truth has prevailed. My husband’s efforts are victorious. He was so looking forward for this day to come but unfortunately, he was not allowed to live to see this day. He wanted this trial to prove his innocence and to expose the oppressive state of affairs in Kazakhstan.

My husband has always maintained that these charges were nothing but an attempt to silence him from criticizing the oppressive Kazakh regime. He viewed this trial as a big opportunity for the truth about him to prevail. The trial has clearly shown that any so called “evidence” from Kazakhstan can not be trusted because it is likely to be manipulated or fabricated by the Kazakh Secret Service.  Today’s Not Guilty verdict vindicates the lives of all the brave people of Kazakhstan who, like my husband, paid the ultimate price for standing up against a dictatorship with their own lives.”

The Malta connection

Rakhat Aliyev self-exiled in Malta after losing political immunity in Austria in 2007. The Maltese authorities had frozen his assets over allegations of money laundering. Last year, a court ruled that Mr Aliyev could not be investigated by the Maltese police for the alleged torture and frame-up of two former Kazakh bodyguards because he was not a permanent resident of Malta.

The two bodyguards were accused of organising a military coup but they claimed that they were framed by MrAliyev, who tortured them into giving a false confession. Their request for Malta to investigate Aliyev were rejected. On his part, Aliyev had claimed that the Kazakh secret service was trying to influence the courts and was manipulating the two former bodyguards to testify against him. He had claimed that they would be killed by their own country if they chose to follow their conscience and stopped their allegations against him.

Last year Aliyev left Malta for Cyprus, where he attempted to obtain citizenship. His Austrian passport was later cancelled and he allegedly turned himself in to the authorities to cooperate in the murder investigation.

On 24 February 2015 he was found dead in his solitary cell at a Vienna prison. The official version is that he committed suicide by hanging himself but his lawyer, Klaus Ainedter said he was highly suspicious of the death and expected a thorough investigation. The medical report has still not been issued. “The fact that the report has not yet been presented strengthened our doubts that the Kazakh government is behind this. We knew that the courts would agree with our opinion on this,” Mr Ainedter told this paper yesterday. “If Mr Aliyev were still alive today he would have been released along with the two others. This really pains us and his family.”

MrAliyev has also been investigated over money laundering, the murder of Kazakh opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbayev and TV presenter Anastasiya Novikova. He was also found guilty of treason by Kazakhstan.