February 2007
The controversial son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev was again in the news this month. Rakhat Aliev, married to Darigha Nazarbayeva (Kazakhstan women normally do not take the surname of their husband), has long been suspected behind the murder of opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbayev. He successfully sued all those who made such accusations in public. Now he is back in the news and suing all the papers and people who are accusing him of yet another crime.
The most recent accusation is that he invited Nurbank Chairman Abilmazhin Gilimov and Deputy Chairman Zholdas Timraliev for talks and then held them for 24 hours to compel them to sell their interest in a building in the capital, Almaty. After being released, Timraliev went home and reported to his wife, Armangul Qapasheva, what had happened. "He said that he was handcuffed all night long to a weight machine and not allowed to sleep while Rakhat Aliev personally beat him," she said.
A few days later, Timraliev was summoned by the tax administration and has not been heard from since. Acting on advice from her lawyer, Nazira Bazarbaeva, the wife of Gilimov, refused to make any comments except to say her husband was not beaten.
The building in question was sold four days after the alleged kidnapping and one day before Timraliev’s disappearance for a very low price. Both men resigned from Nurbank the day after their alleged kidnapping and are now facing charges of fraud. Aliev is suing Qapasheva for making her accusations public, thus insulting his honor and dignity. Qapasheva responded that she is only repeating what her husband told her and that if Aliev wants to refute the claim, then he should bring her husband back and have him claim that she is lying. Four newspapers that printed her statement are also being sued by Aliev.
Such controversy is not what President Nazarbayev needs right now, so he has dismissed his son-in-law as first deputy foreign minister and transferred him to Austria as Kazakhstan’s ambassador. This is the second time Aliev has been sidelined to Austria amidst controversy. The official reason given for his transfer to Austria is to lobby for Kazakhstan to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2009.
Kazakhstan’s State Democracy Commission ended a year of work by making non-binding recommendations on political reform. One major change concerns the election of members of parliament. Currently 10 seats are reserved for party lists, and the remaining 67 seats are won by popular individual elections. The recommended changes would increase the number of seats won by party lists to half of the parliament seats. This will give more power to the political parties and reduce the influence of individuals.
In this form of election, people vote for a party instead of a person. Each party draws up a list of individuals they will appoint to the seats they win in the order they will be distributed. For example, if a party wins three seats, the first three people on its list win a seat in parliament.
Other proposed changes would also transfer some powers from the president to the legislature. But the president would still maintain a preponderance of power. Powers recommended to shift to parliament include the nomination of candidates to the constitutional court, the Central Election Commission and the Audit Committee. Parliament would also gain oversight over the budget and input in the formation of the government.
"Rakhat Aliev, married to Darigha Nazarbayeva (Kazakhstan women normally do not take the surname of their husband)"
Most women in Kazakhstan DO take the name of their husband. When your maiden name is Nazarbayev, though, it's a good idea to keep it. Nice try, though.
Posted by: WRONG! | May 24, 2007 at 03:08 AM
I believe that in the context of the article, Ms. Qapasheva (wife of Mr. Timraliev) also had not taken her husband's name. However, the larger dimensions of the Nurbank case are far more important: rule-of-law and human rights.
Posted by: Bonnie Boyd | June 05, 2007 at 06:00 AM