Kazakh figures demand probe in relation to president’s son-in-law

Kazakh pub­lic and polit­i­cal fig­ures demand that, togeth­er with the Swiss Prosecutor-General’s Office, the Kazakh Prosecutor-General’s Office should con­duct its own inves­ti­ga­tions into the cor­rup­tion case of Timur Kulibayev. In an address to Kazakh Prosecutor-General Kayrat Mami, signed by 106 peo­ple, they say that no state body in Kazakhstan, includ­ing the finan­cial police, had react­ed to charges brought by the Swiss prosecutor’s office against Kulibayev. It turned out that the Prosecutor-General’s Office was unaware of the charges. They also demand that President Nazarbayev should give his own assess­ment of his son-in-law. The fol­low­ing is the text of an address enti­tled: “Kulibayev must resign and be detained for inter­ro­ga­tion!” pub­lished by pro-oppo­si­tion Kazakh news­pa­per Zhas Alash on 14 December; orig­i­nal sub­head­ing has been retained:

An address on behalf of citizens and non-governmental organisations to Kazakh Prosecutor-General Kayrat Mami.

The Prosecutor-General’s Office of the Swiss Confederation has insti­tut­ed a crim­i­nal case against Timur Kulibayev, a Kazakh cit­i­zen and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, and his part­ner Arvind Tiku. According to pre­lim­i­nary infor­ma­tion, they are accused of mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of mon­ey. We do not doubt that these crimes were com­mit­ted on the ter­ri­to­ry of Kazakhstan.

There were such accu­sa­tions before this one in rela­tion to the president’s son-in-law. However, the Agency for Fighting Economic Crimes and Corruption [the finan­cial police] of Kazakhstan did noth­ing about them. Other state bod­ies, includ­ing the Prosecutor-General’s Office, said noth­ing either. If some­thing hap­pened with oth­er offi­cials, these bod­ies would imme­di­ate­ly act against them. For exam­ple, [for­mer] Health Minister Zhaksylyk Doskaliyev was imme­di­ate­ly arrest­ed [on cor­rup­tion charges] and relieved of his post. However, the charges brought against him can­not pos­si­bly be com­pared with the charges brought against Timur Kulibayev. Judging by this, it seems that no law is applic­a­ble to the son-in-law of our country’s pres­i­dent, and he is a kind of unique fig­ure stand­ing beyond legislation.

In 2001, the demo­c­ra­t­ic soci­ety of the coun­try raised a scan­dal, which was called Kazakhgate, and the cor­rupt activ­i­ties of senior offi­cials in rela­tion to ille­gal oper­a­tions of Kazakhstan’s oil, on an inter­na­tion­al lev­el. At that time, a let­ter with such con­tent, signed by 33 well-known polit­i­cal and pub­lic fig­ures, was sent to the US Justice Department and Congress. Although about a decade has passed since then, we have noticed that this prob­lem has been get­ting worse, let alone find­ing a solu­tion to it. Switzerland has start­ed anoth­er scan­dalous case, in which again mem­bers of President Nazarbayev’s fam­i­ly are involved, but the coun­try is silent – state bod­ies and the pres­i­dent him­self pre­tend that they know noth­ing about it. This deja vu gives rise to a num­ber of legal ques­tions in the run-up to the 19th anniver­sary of Kazakhstan’s inde­pen­dence [16 February]. Is this inde­pen­dence need­ed to turn President Nazarbayev’s rel­a­tives into the wealth­i­est and most influ­en­tial peo­ple in the country?

• Is the inde­pen­dence need­ed for the deceived share­hold­ers and debtors to car­ry out an inef­fec­tive fight with the gov­ern­ment to solve their hous­ing prob­lems, at a time when the Swiss prosecutor’s office charges the president’s son-in-law with the mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of over 100m euros, and the president’s daugh­ter buys vil­las for over 100m euros and wal­lows in luxury?
• Is it need­ed for the president’s grand­son to dri­ve a 400,000-dollar car at a time when the aver­age wage in the coun­try is 300–400 dollars?
• Is it need­ed for the president’s grand­sons to study in the United Kingdom and our sons to receive edu­ca­tion at home?
• Is it need­ed for our elder­ly peo­ple to pass away in dilap­i­dat­ed hos­pi­tals and for the pres­i­dent and his close rel­a­tives to receive treat­ment in well-known hos­pi­tals in Europe?
• Is it need­ed for judges to pass ver­dicts not on legal grounds, but on the instruc­tions from the top or depend­ing on their pocket?
• Is it need­ed for each of us to hide what we think about and mur­mur in the kitchen?
• Then what for did we fight for our inde­pen­dence? Did we fight to find our­selves in this situation?

We believe in the oppo­site. In our opin­ion, the author­i­ties should work not only for them­selves, but also for the entire nation.

We believe that to prove that the Kazakh Prosecutor-General’s Office serves the peo­ple, not only should it help the inves­ti­ga­tions launched by the Swiss Prosecutor-General’s Office, but it should also launch its own inves­ti­ga­tions into the case. This inves­ti­ga­tion should be con­duct­ed strict­ly in com­pli­ance with the demands of the Kazakh leg­is­la­tion and the con­sti­tu­tion, with­out react­ing to Kulibayev’s rel­a­tives and his rela­tions at the top.

We demand that full infor­ma­tion be giv­en in the coun­try as to the launch of the crim­i­nal case and the course of the inves­ti­ga­tions, and Timur Kulibayev him­self be relieved of his state post till the end of the investigations.

We also think that President Nazarbayev should give his own assess­ment in rela­tion to his sec­ond son-in-law because the son-in-law also, like those who signed the address below, is a Kazakh citizen.

Signed by

• Serikbolsyn Abdildin, for­mer first sec­re­tary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan;
• Gaziz Aldamzharov, the first sec­re­tary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan;
• Vladimir Kozlov, the leader of the Alga! [Forward!] party;
• Aysulu Kadyrbayeva, Kuretamyr [Jugular Vein], pub­lic fund and a mem­ber of the Writers’ Union of Kazakhstan;
• Zhasaral Kuanyshalin, Zhasa Azattyk! [Long Live Freedom!] pub­lic association;
• Bakyt Tumenova, Amansaulyq [Safety-and-Soundness] pub­lic fund, and oth­ers, a total of 106 peo­ple signed.

The Prosecutor-General’s Office knows nothing

The Swiss Prosecutor-General’s Office is known to have charged Timur Kulibayev and his busi­ness part­ner Arvind Tiku with mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of 600m dol­lars. During the inves­ti­ga­tions, Swiss pros­e­cu­tors are plan­ning to reveal cor­rup­tion crimes of their asso­ciates, too. However, it turned out that the Kazakh Prosecutor-General’s Office and the Foreign Ministry do not know that the crim­i­nal case has been insti­tut­ed against the son-in-law.

Sergey Dospolov, the head of the depart­ment for inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion of the Prosecutor-General’s Office, says that the Kazakh Prosecutor-General’s Office has received no offi­cial let­ter from Switzerland. Even if such a let­ter were received, it would pro­vide no grounds for launch­ing a crim­i­nal case against Kulibayev. We will check in Kazakhstan what they (the Swiss Prosecutor-General’s Office – edi­tor) have in hand. If they give us some infor­ma­tion, only after that one can talk about launch­ing a crim­i­nal case, he says. If the Kazakh prosecutor’s office does not con­firm the infor­ma­tion, but the Swiss pros­e­cu­tors have the facts of crim­i­nal case in their hands, they will not close the case, they will con­tin­ue inves­ti­ga­tions. Dospolov assured us that if the Swiss prosecutor’s office asks for some infor­ma­tion, the Kazakh Prosecutor-General’s Office will look for it and if it finds some mate­ri­als, it will imme­di­ate­ly pass them over to Switzerland.

According to an inter­view giv­en by lawyer Bruno de Pri [name untraced] to Golos Respubliki news­pa­per, the inves­ti­ga­tions will pos­si­bly end with the con­fis­ca­tion of ille­gal­ly pri­va­tized assets and prop­er­ties and return­ing them to Kazakhstan. If one is to believe in the words of the lawyer, the Swiss prosecutor’s office has spe­cif­ic evi­dences and witnesses.

Description of Source: Almaty Zhas Alash in Kazakh — Privately-owned oppo­si­tion-mind­ed twice-week­ly newspaper