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Eurasia
February 23, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
article in the Armenian constitution that required that presidential nominees hold sole citizenship of Armenia and permanently reside in Armenia for six years prior to running for office. A look into EHI's registration documents revealed that Sarkissian held British citizenship and had listed the UK as his permanent residence as recently as 2014. A spokesperson in Sarkissian's office re- sponded by saying that he had held dual British- Armenian citizenship between 2002 and 2011, but that he had renounced the former more than six years ago and therefore that he was legally eligi- ble to run for president.
Upon his nomination in January, several opposi- tion parties criticised Sarkissian for being a weak proxy for the current head of state, Serzh Sarg- syan (no relation), whose second term in office ends in April. If appointed, Sarkissian will become
Jailed Kazakh businessman pleads guilty to murder at behest of Mukhtar Ablyazov
bne IntelliNews
Jailed businessman Muratkhan Tokmadi has pleaded guilty to murdering a prominent Kazakh banker, Yerzhan Tatishev, on the orders of fugitive banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former head of BTA Bank. Ablyazov became the bank’s chairman in 2004 shortly after the death of Tatishev, who was, at the time, the bank’s chief executive.
The Kazakh authorities have accused Ablyazov of massive fraud — Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna took over BTA Bank in 2009 and subsequently alleged Ablyazov and his subordi-
the first president whose powers will be largely ceremonial, after Armenians voted to switch from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary republic in a December 2015 referendum.
Since the office of the prime minister will become the most important in the country come April, the parliamentary opposition — the Yelk ("Way Out") and Prosperous Armenia parties — and extra- parliamentary parties have accused Sargsyan
of seeking to become the country's next prime minister and of appointing a figurehead as president in order to continue to exert control over the presidency. As the head of HHK, Sargsyan is a natural choice for prime minister, but his popularity has taken a nosedive in recent years amidst waves of demonstrations over his administration's corruption, economic policies and defence strategies.
Mukhtar Ablyazov is a vocal critic of President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s regime who has alleged that the Kazakh authorities’ accusations are part of a vendetta against him for trangressing against Nazarbayev by breaking a code of trust between the Kazakh oligarchs.
nates had siphoned off $5bn from the lender.
Kazakh state prosecutors announced last October that they were restarting an investigation into the death of Tatishev, which was previously ruled to be a case of involuntary manslaughter. Tokmadi was freed until he was detained again in mid-2017 amid allegations that he was the leader of a rack- eteering group.
Tatishev’s trial on the murder charge began on February 16 in the city of Taraz. Ablyazov has