CNN’s iReport runs our videos of Vienna vigil

CNN’s iReport has run our videos of the July 21 Vienna vigil outside the courthouse where Rakhat Aliyev pled unsuccessfully before an Austrian judge for his freedom.

The videos, produced by #JusticeForNovikova activists,appear on YouTube in addition to the citizen journalism website of CNN.

In one of of our CNN iReport videos, titled “Vienna protesters want Rakhat Aliyev tried for Novikova murder,” protesters explain their concerns that Aliyev may not face justice in Austria because of the fact that Austria’s new Minister of Justice, Wolfgang Brandstetter, was on Aliyev’s payroll to keep the former Kazakhstan KGB general out of prison.

Observers of the protesters agreed that evidence is compelling that Rakhat Aliyev was behind the 2004 murder of Anastasiya Novikova, and that it was incumbent on Austrian authorities to follow every piece of information.

Some of the observers in the video said that “justice can be bought” in Europe, and raised the issue of Brandstetter and Aliyev’s KGB networks as making #JusticeForNovikova anything but a sure thing.

The other of our CNN iReport videos is of our first, quick montage of footage from the protest in front of the Vienna Criminal Court.

VIDEO: Vienna protest against Rakhat Aliyev

New YouTube video of Vienna protest against Rakhat Aliyev

A video of the Vienna protest at Rakhat Aliyev’s criminal hearing July 21 is now on YouTube.

The video shows the group of young people from Austria and other European countries who gathered for a quiet, 4-hour vigil across from the Vienna Criminal Court.

“I am the same age” as Anastasiya Novikova “when she was killed ten years ago,” a 23 year-old Viennese demonstrator says in the video.

“I came here from Ireland just to see that justice is done,” another 23 year-old woman says at the protest.

“Aliyev must be brought to justice,” a young man in a #JusticeForNovikova shirt adds.

The video has a gritty feel of an amateur production, and it gets the point across well: Rakhat Aliyev is in the prison across the street, attending a court hearing across the street, and Austria must ensure that he is held accountable for Anastasiya Novikova’s fate.

Anastasiya was the young mother of Aliyev’s daughter who was born in 2003. Then Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Austria, Aliyev took unusual lengths to cover up his affair, forcing Anastasiya to marry his cousin, an embassy driver, and move to Beirut, where Anastasiya lived as a captive in an apartment owned by two Aliyev associates. She was murdered by being thrown off the balcony of that apartment on June 19, 2004.

British protesters observed the 10th anniversary of Anastasiya’s death at Lowndes Square in London on June 19 – a protest that the Austria-based activists saw on YouTube.

#RakhatAliyev #JusticeForNovikova #JusticeNovikova video of Vienna protest

Protesters show up at Rakhat Aliyev court hearing in Vienna

Vigil at Rakhat Aliyev court hearing in Vienna

Protesters assemble outside the Vienna Criminal Court during Rakhat Aliyev’s July 21 hearing, calling for #JusticeForNovikova.

A group of protesters is holding a vigil in front of the Vienna court house where Rakhat Aliyev is to attend a hearing today to plead for his freedom.

The protesters are wearing #JusticeForNovikova shirts. They tweeted the accompanying photo.

At the time of this posting, the international group is standing in front of the Vienna Criminal Court (Landesgericht für Strafsachen Wien) on Landesgerichtsstraße, the broad boulevard in the Austrian capital.

Scheduled for today, July 21, the Rakhat Aliyev court hearing is to consider the accused murderer’s plea to be set free and have the murder charges dismissed, or whether to put him on trial in Austria.

Aliyev is being held in the neighboring jail until Austrian authorities decide whether or not to prosecute him on two counts of murder and other charges, for crimes allegedly committed in Kazakhstan.

The #JusticeForNovikova contingent is there to urge Austrian authorities to investigate evidence pointing to Aliyev’s role in Anastasiya’s murder in 2004.

To respect local laws and norms about protests, the #JusticeForNovikova activists did not plan an actual demonstration, but are standing silently, by themselves, reminiscent of the “standing man” passive protest in Turkey.

They did, however, display posters for photographers.

Although not faced in Austria with the police brutality that demonstrators faced in Turkey, the purpose behind the quiet protest, #JusticeForNovikova activists say, is to create a mere presence without violating local laws.

#RakhatAliyev #StandingMan #JusticeNovikova #JusticeForNovikova

International support for #JusticeForNovikova

From Europe to California, more signs of support

#JusticeForNovikova stickers have been seen in Vienna, Austria, where Rakhat Aliyev is awaiting trial for murder.

More and more signs show that the #JusticeForNovikova campaign is gaining support from around the world.

This website is just over a month old, and for the first four days of this week we’ve had more than 1,800 visitors who viewed our pages more than 5,500 times.

Nearly 3,000 people ‘like’ our Justice for Novikova Facebook page.

Our YouTube channel has had almost 8,000 views – with each ‘view’ meaning someone watched at least 30 seconds of our videos – representing 8,630 minutes of video.

A #JusticeForNovikova sticker on California’s Interstate 5, near San Diego. The reflection washes out the picture of the sticker, so check the dark picture, taken without the flash, to see the logo.

First there were the protests in London on the 10th anniversary of Anastasiya Novikova’s murder. People viewed the two protest videos more than 2,900 times on our YouTube channel alone, with hundreds more views on other websites.

From Europe to California

And then the stickers started appearing. First at exclusive Lowndes Square in London. Then in California. Then in the Netherlands, directed at Rakhat Aliyev‘s longtime exile of Malta. Then in Lithuania. Most recently, stickers have appeared in Vienna, Austria, where Aliyev is in prison awaiting trial on murder charges.

What’s next?

For those of you who would like to start your own campaign, we’ve provided a page for you to download PDF images to print your own signs, banners, T-shirts, masks – and of course, stickers.

Send us pictures or videos of your events or other signs of support. Find us at anastasiya@justicefornovikova.com. Or send them directly to our Facebook page – either privately as a message (we’ll protect your anonymity), or post them right on our timeline.

#RakhatAliyev #JusticeForNovikova #JusticeNovikova

AUSTRIA – Solidarity in historic Vienna (lamp post at left), July 19.

AUSTRIA – #JusticeForNovikova stickers are seen
on the streets of the Austrian capital. See close-up for detail.

NETHERLANDS: Another sticker at the Air Malta gate at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam.

LITHUANIA: A sticker appears in the Old Town of Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.

CALIFORNIA, USA: Without the flash, you can make out the design 

of the #JusticeForNovikova sticker on Interstate 5 in southern California.

NETHERLANDS: A #JusticeForNovikova sticker is seen on the glass window of the gate overlooking Air Malta’s flight to what had been Rakhat Aliyev’s place of exile. July 2014. The Air Malta jet’s red tail, with the distinctive Maltese Cross, appears in the background.

Kazakhstan sends evidence of Aliyev's involvement in opposition leader murder to Austria

Kazakhstan's Tengri News reports that Kazakhstan has sent documents pointing to the involvement of Rakhat Aliyev in the murder of a Kazakh opposition leader Sarsenbayev to Austria, Tengrinews reports citing Interfax-Kazakhstan.

“We have sent an investigation request [to Austria], in which we specified that we needed to question several individuals and requested an opportunity to do so,” a source in the Kazakhstan General Prosecutor’s Office told Interfax-Kazakhstan.

The request was set to the Austrian law enforcement authorities after the Specialized Inter-District Criminal Court of Almaty Oblast established the involvement of Rakhat Aliyev and former head of the National Security Service Alnur Musayev in the murder of a prominent Kazakhstani politician Altynbek Sarsenbayev and his aides.

The bodies of the opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbayev, his driver and bodyguard were discovered on February 13, 2006 in the outskirts of Almaty.

Nine people were found guilty of the crime and were sentenced to various prison terms. Chairman of the Senate Yerzhan Utembayev was found guilty of ordering the assassination and sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment. Rustam Ibragimov, the killer, was sentenced to the capital punishment. Since there is a moratorium on death penalty in Kazakhstan, Ibragimov will spend his life behind bars.

Meanwhile, in late 2013 the Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan announced that Ibragimov changed his testimony. The killer announced that it were Aliyev and Musayev who ordered the murder, not Utembayev. In January this year Kazakhstan Prosecutor's Office filed a motion to start a new investigation in the case against Aliyev and Musayev.

Aliyev, who was Kazakhstan's ambassador to Austria until 2007 and a former son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, was convicted in 2008 and sentenced to a total of 40 years in prison for several grace crimes, including murder of two bankers, treason, and preparing a coup. The verdicts were handed out in absentia as Aliyev was hiding abroad since 2007.

Currently, Aliyev is under arrest in Austria’s capital Vienna. According to his lawyer, he handed himself in voluntarily to cooperate with the investigation on the kidnap and murder of two Kazakhstani bankers Zholdas Timraliyev and Aibar Khasenov.

For more information see:http://en.tengrinews.kz/crime/Kazakhstan-sends-evidences-of-Aliyevs-involvement-in-opposition-leader-murder-to-254137/
Use of the Tengrinews English materials must be accompanied by a hyperlink to en.Tengrinews.kz

BBC: Austria arrests top Kazakh dissident Rakhat Aliyev

Austrian police have arrested a leading opponent of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on suspicion of murder.

Lawyers for Rakhat Aliyev say he flew to Vienna voluntarily for questioning by Austrian investigators.

Mr Aliyev, a former son-in-law of Mr Nazarbayev, is wanted in Kazakhstan over the murder of two bankers, kidnapped in 2007 and later found dead.

Austria has twice refused to extradite him. He used to be Kazakh ambassador to Vienna. He denies the charges.

Mr Aliyev, who currently lives in Malta, fell out with the Kazakh president in 2007 and says the Kazakh accusations against him are politically motivated.

A businessman with wide contacts among the Kazakh elite, he spoke out against Mr Nazarbayev after being sacked as ambassador.

Austria has refused to extradite him because of concerns about human rights in the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic.

He was formerly married to Dariga Nazarbayeva, eldest daughter of Mr Nazarbayev, an authoritarian ruler who has cracked down hard on any dissent.

Austria opened its own investigation into Mr Aliyev in 2011.

Rakhat Aliyev arrested in Vienna

According to Malta Today, Kazakh exile Rakhat Aliyev has been arrested in Vienna, according to Austria Presse Agentur.

Citing Aliyev's lawyer Mandfred Ainedter, the reports says that Aliyev turned himself in to police voluntarily because he wanted to cooperate with the investigation.

An arrest warrant for the Kazakh leader's ex son-in-law was issued on May 19, 2014. Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck has not confirmed Aliyev's arrest so far.

Aliyev is under criminal prosecution in Austria over his alleged involvement in the murder of two bankers in 2008.

Furthermore, Aliyev has had his assets frozen by Maltese courts as part of a money laundering inquiry. The Maltese investigation is being conducted in parallel with a similar inquiry underway in Krefeld, Germany.

In March, the Criminal Court  issued a freezing order on the assets owned by Aliyev, in the first confirmed action that the embattled millionaire was being investigated over money laundering.

The freezing order was issued against Aliyev, 52, and his Austrian wife Elnara Shorazova, and a host of companies he is connected to.

The freezing order has been communicated to Banif Bank and Bank of Valletta, as well as the inland revenue and VAT departments, the public registry and the financial services authority, Ganado Trustees & Fiduciaries and Iuris Fiduciaries.

The order prohibits Aliyev and his wife Elnara Shorazova, and the companies mentioned, from transferring or otherwise disposing of any movable or immovable property.