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Eurasia
March 16, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
Kazakh businessman on trial for hit job recaptured after prison escape
bne IntelliNews
Kazakh police on March 9 reported the recapture of businessman Muratkhan Tokmadi, who has pleaded guilty to the murder of prominent Kazakh banker Yerzhan Tatishev in a “hit job” allegedly ordered by fugitive banker Mukhtar Ablyazov. All the roads running out of Taraz, in the south of Kazakhstan near the Kyrgyz border, were blocked by police officers, who managed to take Tokmadi back into custody a matter of hours after his escape from a prison hospital, according to local media reports.
Tokmadi’s trial on the murder charge began on February 16 in Taraz. Ablyazov has made public statements saying the allegations that he ordered Tokmadi to kill Tatishev – CEO of BTA Bank at the time he died from a single shot to the head in 2004 – are a "lie." Tokmadi’s wife, Jamilya Aimbetova- Tokmadi, said on her Instagram page last year that her husband was tortured while in detention and that she did not believe the Kazakh Security Ser- vices’ (KNB's) allegations. She claimed she was threatened by the KNB for vocalising her opinions. Furthermore, she alleged that the KNB was at- tempting to force Tokmadi to “admit” from prison that he murdered Tatishev on Ablyazov’s orders. Aimbetova-Tokmadi maintained that a Youtube video from July 2017 featuring her husband’s rela- tive Beken Imankaliyev, who accused Tokmadi of killing Tatishev, was disingenuous as Imankaliyev was likely pressured to record it.
Ablyazov became BTA Bank’s chairman in 2004 shortly after Tatishev’s death. The Kazakh authorities accuse Ablyazov of massive fraud – Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna
Prior to the trial fugitive banker Mukhtar Ablyazov (pictured) strenuously denied the prosecution's claims that he told Muratkhan Tokmadi to murder banker Yerzhan Tatishev.
took over BTA Bank in 2009 and subsequently alleged Ablyazov and his subordinates had siphoned off as much as $5bn from the lender.
It was last October that Kazakh state prosecutors announced that they were were restarting an investigation into the death of Tatishev. The death was previously ruled to be a case of involuntary manslaughter that occurred during a hunting trip, which only involved Tokmadi and Tatishev. Tokmadi, was freed until he was detained again in mid-2017 amid allegations that he was the leader of a racketeering group.
‘Confession’in a TV documentary
An October 25 statement about the reopening
of the Tatishev case followed a television documentary aired on October 24 in which Tokmadi states that Tatishev’s death was a “hit job” ordered by Ablyazov. While it is possible that Ablyazov may have played a role in Tatishev’s demise, at the time of his death some Kazakh analysts stated that his death might have been orchestrated by Kazakh elites at large.
Tokmadi is an owner of large glass manufactur- ing producers, including KazStroySteklo. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has previously granted government awards to Tokmadi’s busi- ness for high-quality work.
An in-absentia trial sentenced Ablyazov on
June 7 last year to 20 years in prison for crimes including the theft of pension assets and savings. An Almaty court convicted him of abusing
office, organising and leading a criminal group,