Kazakhstan: Coup trial may have dented government's image

Joanna Lillis: 3/31/08

Few people in Kazakhstan were sorry to see the demise of Rakhat Aliyev, who was recently convicted of conspiring to topple the administration of his former father-in-law, President Nursultan Nazarbayev. But some analysts suggest that the authorities' handling of the Aliyev case has damaged the government's image, both inside and outside the country.

Aliyev and co-defendant Alnur Musayev – a former head of the National Security Committee (KNB), where Aliyev was once deputy chairman – were found guilty by a secret military court in Astana on March 26 of attempting to forcibly seize power, illegally receiving and divulging state secrets, running an organized crime group, theft and illegal possession of firearms, theft of state property and abuse of power. Musayev was also found guilty of treason for passing state secrets to foreign intelligence.

The two received 20-year sentences in absentia, in addition to sentences received at a separate trial that concluded in January, when Aliyev received 20 years and Musayev 15. Aliyev is living in Austria, where he was serving as ambassador when he fell into disgrace in May 2007. Musayev is also believed to be abroad. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Aliyev and Musayev had set up an organized crime ring in 1996, and steadily sought to expand their authority, state prosecutor Kulziya Kyukova said during a March 26 news briefing in Astana. "It has been established by the court that the people mentioned, consciously abusing their official positions, systematically conducted illegal activity with the aim of personal enrichment, and of carrying out their power ambitions and a forcible seizure of power," she said in remarks posted on the Prosecutor-General's Office website.

Kyukova, along with state security officials who gave a news conference the following day, said that Aliyev's group, called the Top Secret Directorate, operated from 1996-2007. Officials said serious action was only taken against it when plans to launch a coup in May 2007 were uncovered. The group, Kyukova said, had infiltrated members – who were recruited, for payments of up to $10,000 per month via a combination of threats, blackmail and persuasion – into top state bodies. "The fighters' high material incentive was aimed at them being prepared to carry out any orders, up to the physical removal of unwanted people," Kyukova said.

They were paid to obtain state secrets in strategic areas, including energy, the military-industrial complex, geological prospecting and security. The "anti-state plot, directed at forcibly seizing power" went through several stages, Shokan Shaykenov, the head of the KNB's Investigation Department, said during a March 27 news conference. Initially, the group engaged in extortion and illegal business takeovers, and then pursued political ambitions via "forcible pressure on the political and business elites." The group also used Aliyev's media empire to try to influence public opinion, as its leaders conspired to seize power, Shaykenov was quoted as saying by the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency.

Law-enforcement bodies say the group illegally obtained weapons, including 388 automatic rifles, 864 firearms and more than 57,000 rounds of ammunition and sent fighters to be trained in Egypt and Israel. The group – described by a Liter newspaper headline as "The Abortive Junta" – obtained poison to kill officials and also radioactive isotopes, and Aliyev reportedly sent poison-shooting devices to Kazakhstan from Austria. In 2007, Shaykenov said, the criminal ring was receiving regular information about the movements of senior state figures, for which members of the crime syndicate were paid up to half a million dollars.

"All facts and conclusions are fully confirmed by the case material and subsequent court ruling," KNB Investigation Department Director Marat Kolkabayev said, but the scenario is being presented without supporting evidence on grounds of national security, leaving no opportunity for verification. Law-enforcement bodies say further cases are being processed and efforts continue to expose more suspects.

Aliyev rejected the state's allegations out of hand. "These are absurd accusations in the style of the [19]30s and [19]40s of the Soviet times," he told Russia's Nezavisimaya Gazeta, adding: "In our country the whole legislative, executive and judiciary is in the hands of one person. An authoritarian leader gives orders, and judges just rubberstamp those decisions. This is basically revenge on me."

The announcement of the verdict made headlines throughout Kazakhstan, where Aliyev has long been seen as an unsavory character. Some observers expressed amazement, however, that it was left to minor law-enforcement officials to break the sensational news that for 11 years a powerful crime syndicate was supposedly operating at the highest levels of power, able to plot a coup, seek to poison senior officials, steal weapons and spy for foreign intelligence.

Many are asking why no sign of high-level intrigue posing such a serious threat to national security was spotted earlier. Some commentators, meanwhile, have noted that some concerns about Aliyev were reportedly brought to President Nursultan Nazarbayev's attention in 2001, when a group of senior officials presented him a dossier suggesting Aliyev was plotting a coup. Aliyev was then sent to Austria for his first stint as ambassador, while officials involved in presenting the dossier fell out of favor. Some of those who participated in the effort to expose Aliyev were fired, others, such as former regional governor Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, were sent to prison on corruption charges they said were politically motivated. Another, Altynbek Sarsenbayev, was brutally murdered in 2006. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"Normal people saw the anomalous essence of Rakhat 10 years ago, [but] very few talked about that aloud, and only a handful tried to fight him," commented Svoboda Slova newspaper's editor-in-chief, Gulzhan Yergaliyeva, in a front page editorial. "The latter fell victim to bandit and judicial punishments, went to prison, lost their property and health and some their lives."

Aliyev says criminal proceedings against him started only when he told Nazarbayev he would run for president. The disgraced former presidential in-law now paints himself as a dissident and democrat. Though most observers in Kazakhstan deride Aliyev's sudden conversion to civil society advocate, not even his most ardent critics describe his trial as a triumph of justice. "This is only Nursultan Nazarbayev's war against Rakhat Aliyev," said Yergaliyeva. "As president, he has used the state machine against his son-in-law, as Rakhat once did against others."

Editor's Note: Joanna Lillis is a freelance writer who specializes in Central Asia.

Posted March 31, 2008 © Eurasianet