Rakhat Aliyev rose to the height of influence and power in Kazakhstan, marrying the president's daughter and controlling many of the country's major companies. By the time he was found dead in a Vienna jail cell today while awaiting trial for murder, he'd been on the lam from his former father-in-law for eight years.

Rakhat Aliyev, the Kazakh president's former son-in-law turned opponent, has been found dead in an Austrian jail from an apparent suicide, a court spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Two Kazakh nationals have made a renewed police challenge, to ask the Maltese law courts to investigate their accusations of torture against Kazakh exile Rakhat Aliyev, who resides in Malta. Despite repeated requests, the police have so far refused to investigate complaints by former bodyguards Satzhev Ibraev and Pyotr Afanasenko. The two men claim they were tortured on order of Aliyev in 2001, and personally beaten by him, to extract a false confession that their boss, former prime minister Akezhan Kazageldin, was plotting a coup against Aliyev's father-in-law, Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Der kasachische Unternehmer Sotkimbaev hätte morgen in Wien über den Fall von Kasaschstans früheren Österreich-Botschafter sprechen sollen. Wien. Drei mutmaßliche Opfer von Rachat Alijew erheben neue Vorwürfe gegen den früheren Botschafter Kasachstans in Österreich. Sie nennen sich „Auslandsbüro der Opposition Kasachstans". Um ihre Geschichten an die Öffentlichkeit zu bringen, veranstalten sie heute, Donnerstag, eine Pressekonferenz – ausgerechnet im Media Quarter Marx. Dieses Objekt steht zu 60 Prozent im Besitz von Alijews Gesellschaft VBM.

Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes has called on the European Commission to involve Eurojust and Europol in a Europe-wide investigation into Rakhat Aliyev, a Kazakhstani multi-millionaire residing in Malta.

Maltese court says police has jurisdiction to investigate torture allegations against Kazakh exile living in Malta. A United States congressman has asked the European Commission to investigate "serious allegations" of human rights abuses made against Rakhat Aliyev, a former Kazakh diplomat who now resides in Malta.

Kazakh authorities must do their utmost to determine the whereabouts and ensure the safety of journalist Tokbergen Abiyev, who has been missing since December 20, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

(SRI) - The state-owned "Kazakhstan" TV channel dropped all Russian-language broadcasting as of September 1, Interfax reported on Friday.

A Joint Statement by Freedom House, Global Witness, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Eurasian Democracy Initiative for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Oslo