Rakhat Aliyev turns himself in to Vienna authorities

    The Kazakh president's former son-in-law, Rakhat Aliyev, has been arrested in Vienna, Austria Presse Agentur reported, citing Aliyev's lawyer Mandfred Ainedter. According to Ainedter, Aliyev turned himself in to police "voluntarily" because he wanted to "cooperate" with the investigation. An arrest warrant for the Kazakh leader's ex son-in-law was issued on May 19, 2014. Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck, for his part, has not confirmed Aliyev's arrest.
    Kazakh representatives have so far been unavailable for comment. Aliyev is under criminal prosecution in Austria for his suspected role in the murder of two bankers in Almaty in 2008. Furthermore, Malta's Criminal Court recently issued a freezing order on his assets as part of a money laundering inquiry. The Maltese investigation is being conducted in parallel with a similar inquiry underway in Krefeld, Germany.
    Aliyev, who had until 2007 served as Kazakhstan's ambassador to Austria and the Kazakh president's former son-in-law, was sentenced in his home country in 2008 to a total of 40 years' imprisonment for committing a number of grave crimes, including treason and a coup attempt.
    The court verdicts were issued in Aliyev's absence, because he has been hiding abroad since the spring of 2007.
    In February 2014, the Specialized Criminal Court of the Almaty Region claimed Rakhat Aliyev was involved in the murder of Altynbek Sarsenbayev and his aides, according to Voice of Russia.