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.