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Austria post-mortem finds Kazakh death was suicide | |
(1 day later) | |
Prosecutors in Austria say former Kazakh ambassador Rakhat Aliyev, found dead in a Vienna prison on Tuesday, appears to have killed himself. | |
They cited a post-mortem on the body of Mr Aliyev, who was found hanging in prison while awaiting trial for the murder of two bankers in Kazakhstan. | |
His lawyers want an investigation. | |
The man once married to a daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was jailed in absentia in Kazakhstan for seeking to oust the government. | |
Austria had refused requests to extradite Mr Aliyev, who was sacked as Kazakh ambassador to Vienna in 2007. | |
On the day he was found dead he had been due to testify against two former cellmates accused of blackmailing him with the threat of getting him killed in a way that would look like suicide. | |
No examinations so far suggest there was any third-party involvement in Mr Aliyev's death, the Austrian authorities said. | |
The body was examined by an experienced forensic expert, Vienna's deputy chief prosecutor Gerhard Jarosch said. | |
Neither the examination of his body along with the prison cell in which it was found nor the prison's CCTV footage showed any signs of violence or other third-party involvement in his death, he said. | |
The results of a toxicological test, routinely conducted as part of judicial post-mortems, were due in few days, the deputy chief prosecutor added. | |
This would reveal whether at the time of his death Mr Aliyev's blood had contained traces of anything other than his regular heart medication. | |
Single cell | |
Mr Aliyev had been moved to a single cell after the alleged threat against him became public and was not under suicide watch. | |
One of his lawyers called for a full investigation into his death. | |
"I have significant doubts," Klaus Ainedter told Austrian press agency APA. "I visited him only [on Monday]. There was absolutely no indication of a danger of suicide." | |
Mr Aliyev was first charged in 2007, with Austria twice turning down extradition requests on the grounds that he would not receive a fair trial in Kazakhstan. | |
He had been in custody since June after turning himself in once Austria had agreed to hold the trial. | |
He had denied the murder charges, saying they were politically motivated. | He had denied the murder charges, saying they were politically motivated. |
A businessman with wide contacts among the Kazakh elite, he spoke out against President Nazarbayev after being sacked as ambassador. | |
He was formerly married to Dariga Nazarbayeva, eldest daughter of Mr Nazarbayev. | |
In power virtually unchallenged since Kazakhstan's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Nursultan Nazarbayev has focused on economic reform while resisting moves to democratise the political system. | |
Mr Aliyev's case received huge publicity in Austria with leading lawyers getting involved in the proceedings and accusations that the Kazakh secret service had tried to influence the judicial process. |
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