Anastasiya’s re-burial

New: Photo of Anastasiya’s re-burial after her body was discovered

Anastasiya Novikova’s remains are finally laid to rest in decent burial in 2008. Pictured, L to R: Unidentified, Zhaksybek Esten (father of Daniyar Esten), and Tatyana Medvedeva (mother of Anastasiya Novikova). Location: Burunday Cemetery, Almaty, Kazakhstan, March 2008. Photo is from a member of Anastasiya’s family.

This is the first known publication of the burial of Anastasiya Novikova’s body, after the remains had been exhumed from their secret grave.

As if hiding a murder, the people closest to Anastasiya at the time of her 2004 death did not notify her family or the authorities. They flew Anastasiya’s remains to a remote part of southern Kazakhstan, drove them to an abandoned cemetery, and buried them in an unmarked grave.

One of those who took part in the secret burial was Rakhat Aliyev‘s cousin, Daniyar Esten. Anastasiya had been forced to marry Esten in 2003 to cover up her pregnancy with Aliyev’s child. Anastasiya Novikova was killed in 2004.

Esten, who knew more than anyone about Aliyev’s illicit fatherhood and the circumstances of Anastasiya’s captivity in Beirut and her violent death and secret burial in Kazakhstan, was killed in a mysterious accident in 2005.

Before his death, Esten had Anastasiya’s and Aliyev’s daughter, Luiza, raised by his parents in Kazakhstan.

Anastasiya’s remains remained hidden until 2007, when her body was discovered and identified. At that point, Kazakh authorities notified the family.

Retained as evidence of a crime, Anastasiya’s body was laid to rest in a real Christian burial in Almaty, the old Kazakhstan capital, in March of 2008.

Now, a member of Anastasiya’s family has come forward and provided #JusticeForNovikova with a photograph of Anastasiya’s funeral.

That photo, shown above, was taken on March 4, 2008, at the Burunday Cemetery in Almaty. The picture shows Anastasiya’s final resting place after a simple but loving Christian burial.

Anastasiya’s mother, Tatyana Medvedeva, is the woman standing to the right, her head covered by a scarf. Next to her, in the middle, is Zhaksybek Esten, the father of Daniyar Esten. The woman standing at the left of the picture is not identified.

Anastasiya’s mother endorses JusticeForNovikova.com

Anastasiya’s mother, Tatyana Medvedeva, at a 2010 protest against Aliyev in Austria. The sign says, “We demand justice for Aliyev’s victims.”

Anastasiya Novikova’s mother has gotten in touch with this website and given it her endorsement.

Yesterday, June 23, Tatyana Vasilevna Medvedeva, Anastasiya’s mother, informed us that she supports JusticeForNovikova.com.

When Anastasiya’s remains were discovered and identified in 2007, Mrs. Medvedeva began a legal case against Rakhat Aliyev as the prime suspect in her death.

Anastasiya and baby Luiza, in Beirut, September 2003. (From family collection)

She hired an attorney to pursue a prosecution against Aliyev in Beirut, Lebanon, where Anastasiya was held captive and killed, but for reasons that officially remain unclear, at best, the case was dismissed.

In 2010, Anastasiya’s mother appeared at a small protest in Austria to seek justice in Anastasiya’s violent death (see photo).

The slogan on the poster, translated from German, says “We demand justice for Aliyev’s victims.”

Isolated and with few resources, Mrs. Medvedeva has found that her cause has made little traction against Aliyev’s well-funded propaganda campaign that cast him as a political victim.

The second photo on this page is of Anastasiya and newborn Luiza, taken in September 2003. It is identical to the one in the poster that Mrs. Medvedev is holding in the 2010 photo. However, the image in the poster was cropped, cutting out some of the details that appear in the accompanying picture.

The photo of Mrs. Medvedev at the 2010 protest is taken from Mauro Baldetti’s short documentary, “On the Trail of Rakhat Aliyev.”

We hope that the #JusticeForNovikova campaign can help ensure that justice is served.

People of London explain their anti-Aliyev protest

Demonstrator explains the London anti-Aliyev protest

A participant in the June 19 protest against accused murderer Rakhat Aliyev explains in a video why the group chose Lowndes Square, the heart of London’s super-rich, to hold the demonstration.

The video, posted on YouTube, shows the anti-Aliyev protest footage of their own event, held to mark the 10th anniversary of the murder of Anastasiya Novikova.

“An accomplice to the murder of Anastasiya Novikova lives right here” in Lowndes Square, the unnamed protester says in the video.

London residents rally at Aliyev accomplices’ home in protest

Protesters rally at Aliyev accomplices’ home in London

Protesters in solidarity with the #JusticeForNovikova campaign held a rally in front of the exclusive London apartment building where accomplices of Rakhat Aliyev own a luxury flat, to observe the 10th anniversary of Anastasiya Novikova’s death.

“We are gathering on the steps of the London home of Issam and Devincci Hourani here at Lowndes Square, because they owned the apartment in Beirut where, ten years ago today, Anastasiya was hurled to her death,” said a campaign spokesperson.

Anastasiya was killed on June 19, 2004. About thirty people participated in the protest, unfurling a #JusticeForNovikova banner on the front step of the building.

They held posters of Aliyev and the Houranis as Aliyev accomplices. See theJustice for Novikova Facebook page for pictures, and the#JusticeForNovikova YouTube channel for video.

To symbolize that they were speaking on behalf of a woman who could no longer speak because she is dead, the participants wore masks depicting Anastasiya’s face.

Lowndes Square is a residential area for London’s super rich. Holding a protest there is difficult as there is a very high police presence and a concentration of surveillance cameras, due to the number of embassies and consulates in the area. Police are efficient at responding quickly to complaints from the square’s residents.

That evening, protest participants held a solemn candlelight vigil in the memory of Anastasiya and the other victims of Aliyev and those like him.

Protest organizers say they took an interest in Aliyev after he surrendered to Austrian authorities a few weeks before, on international arrest warrants for the murders of two Kazakhstani bankers in 2007. The bodies were not discovered until 2011.

The widows of the bankers created the Tagdyr Foundation in 2008, after their husbands’ disappearances.

Animated videos: Anastasiya’s story in English and Russian

New animated video tells Anastasiya’s tragic story

A new animated video telling Anastasiya’s story is making the rounds on social media.

The two-minute video, narrated by a Russian woman in the first-person, is a gripping account of Anastasiya’s seduction by Rakhat Aliyev, her pregnancy, her hopes for a bright future and a family, and the horrors she endured as Aliyev stopped at nothing to keep the pregnancy and birth of his illegitimate child a secret.

The video can be viewed through the Justice For Novikova Facebook page and other Facebook pages.

Anastasiya’s tragic story (English)

История убийства Анастасии Новиковой (на русском)

German ex-Interior Minister: Aliyev can be tried in France, Germany or UK

Former German Interior Minister Otto Schily.

The controversy in Austria about whether and how to try Rakhat Aliyev recalls comments last year from German former interior minister Otto Schily.

German authorities have been investigating Aliyev on a range of crimes for years, and many have been critical of Austria’s reluctance to pursue charges against the former Kazakhstan ambassador.

Schily, a member of the Social Democrat Party (SPD), told Kurier last year during a visit to Vienna that he was “confident that similar measures could also be taken against Aliyev in France, Great Britain or Germany.” 

Kurier is reputedly owned by Aliyev.

Tengrinews, a news outlet in Kazakhstan, reported on the Kurier article in English.

Vienna attorney Gabriel Lansky said in the English-language report, “For the first time in several years of the legal proceedings it has been certified that the accusations against Aliyev are confirmed by the Austrian investigation authorities and have no political motivation.”

This finding is important, because it contradicts Aliyev and his European supporters, who claim that he is a political dissident of the Kazakhstan government, and that the charges against him back home are politically motivated.    #JusticeForNovikova

Austria jails Aliyev in double-murder case

Rakhat Aliyev is sitting in an Austrian jail, awaiting criminal charges on two counts of murder and other crimes, news organizations confirm.

The Austrian Independent reports that the charges include “murder and kidnapping” of two banking executives from Nurbank in Kazakhstan, in 2007.

“The case attracted European Union attention after the mutilated bodies of the two bankers were discovered in 2011,” Business Week reports from New York.

“Under international rules, Austria has an obligation to investigate and try Aliyev if they suspect him of committing a crime,” according to Business Week.

Aliyev was convicted in absentia in Kazakhstan, and denies the charges, saying they are politically motivated.

WorldBulletin reports that Aliyev is being held in an Austrian jail, pending further investigation.

The murder and kidnapping charges are not related to the Anastasiya Novikova case.