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Aliyev confession deemed ‘a forgery’

According to a report in the Kronen Zeitung newspaper that was confirmed to the Austrian Press Association by the Vienna public prosecutor, the alleged written confession of the Kazakh murder suspect, former ambassador Rakhat Aliyev, is believed to be a forgery.

Published: 4 July 2014 16:09 CEST
Aliyev confession deemed 'a forgery'
Rakhat Aliyev. Photo: APA (HBF/Dragan Tatic/Archiv)
The confession was therefore discredited as a piece of evidence in the murder case against Aliyev.  "According to the report it is assumed that the confession is a forgery," said spokeswoman Nina Bussek. 
 
The controversial document was obtained as the result of a search of Aliyev's residence.  
 
The confession admits to participation in the murder of the two Kazakh bankers who worked for the bank of which Aliyev was a part owner.
 
The Austrian federal prosecutor requested the testimony of a professional graphologist, who has submitted in a report that the handwriting is unlikely to belong to Aliyev.
 
Nevertheless, the prosecution maintains it has a strong case against the former ambassador.  "The firm suspicion is based on additional evidence," said Bussek. Some of that additional evidence includes an intercepted Skype call, which undermines his alibi for the murders.
 
Aliyev is the former son-in-law of autocratic ruling Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. He fell out of favor and was sentenced in 2008 in absentia for murder.
 
Austria has twice refused extradition requests from Kazakhstan because of concerns about the rule of law and the fairness of the trial in the Central Asian former-Soviet republic.
 
Therefore, the Austrian justice department has decided to conduct its own investigation into the murders, as well as a related case of money laundering.
 
The Vienna public prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Aliyev in May.  Aliyev, who was living with his Austrian wife in Malta, was arrested when he returned to Austria in June.
 
Aliyev is currently awaiting trial in an Austrian prison, where his lawyer has claimed he is being subjected to threats, extortion and intimidation.

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TERRORISM

Austrian investigators seize devices at Munich shooter’s home

Investigators seized electronic devices at the home of a young Austrian who fired shots near Israel's Munich consulate, but found no weapons or Islamic State group propaganda material, authorities said Friday.

Published: 7 September 2024 09:02 CEST
Austrian investigators seize devices at Munich shooter's home

German police shot dead the 18-year-old man on Thursday when he fired a vintage rifle at them near the diplomatic building.

They said they were treating it as a “terrorist attack”, apparently timed to coincide with the anniversary of the killings of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games.

Authorities raided the gunman’s home in the Salzburg region, seizing electronic data carriers, Austria’s top security chief Franz Ruf told a press conference in Vienna on Friday.

READ ALSO: Munich Israeli consulate gunman was ‘Austrian national known to authorities’

During the raid, “no weapons or IS propaganda” material were found, Ruf added.

Despite being subject to a ban on owning and carrying weapons, the man managed to purchase a vintage carbine rifle fitted with a bayonet with around “fifty rounds of ammunition” for 400 euros ($445) the day before the attack, Ruf said.

He opened fire at around 9:00 am (0700 GMT) near the Israeli consulate, sparking a mobilisation of about 500 police in downtown Munich.

At a separate press conference in Munich, prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann said investigators were combing through the gunman’s electronic data but had yet to find conclusive evidence of his motive.

But the “working hypothesis” was that “the perpetrator acted out of Islamist or anti-Semitic motivation”, she told reporters.

Austrian police said on Thursday that the gunman, who had Bosnian roots, had previously been investigated on suspicion of links to terrorism.

Investigators last year found three videos he had recorded in 2021, showing scenes from a computer game “with Islamist content”, prosecutors said in a statement.

In one of them the suspect had used an avatar with a flag of the “al-Nusra Front”, a jihadist group active in Syria, said Ruf.

But the investigation was dropped in 2023 as there were no indications that he was active in “radical” circles, prosecutors said.

“The mere playing of a computer game or the re-enactment of violent Islamist scenes was not sufficient to prove intent to commit the offence,” they added.

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