Kazakhstan's dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev gets Italy to engage in extraordinary rendition

Kazakhstan's dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev and former Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi in 2010.

Europe seems to be going downhill very fast indeed. Vladimir Putin's having his critics killed in Central London is not a one of, isolated event. Now we see how Kazakhstan's dictator, Nursultan Nazarbayev, gets Italy's Minister of the Interior, Minister of Justice, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and police's special forces chief and commandos violate every pertinent law and due process, by summarily kidnaping and deporting from Rome relatives of his critics. This event, in the capital city of a European country let's not forget, should be a scandal of monumental proportions, shouldn't it?

Let me provide some context. Despite indefensible whitewashing from Tony Blair et al, Nursultan Nazarbayev is a proper dictator, no two ways about it. Nazarbayev has imposed his rule in Kazakhstan since 1991 and controls the country as his personal fiefdom. Kazakhstan is yet to see its first free, fair and democratic election. Human, civil and political rights are simply nonexistent. But many Western nations, companies and former political leaders are doing phenomenal business deals with Nazarbayev, who is "absolutely justifiably loved by his nation”, according to Silvio "bunga-bunga" Berlusconi. Nazarbayev's connivance has allowed, in true Russian style, the emergence of an oligarchy: a handful of relatives, appointees, confidants and collaborators have become obscenely wealthy over the years. So there's Timur Kulibayev, Vladimir Kim, Alidzhan Ibragimov, Bolat Utemuratov, Rashid Sarsenov, Rakhat Aliyev... all of whom owe their ill gotten fortunes personally to the khan. And then, there's Mukhtar Ablyazov, a once trusted minister of Nazerbayev accused of embezzling billions from Kazakhstan's BTA bank. So far so Kazakh.

But Ablyazov, as other Kazakh "entrepreneurs", fell from Nazarbayev's grace for whatever reason, and fled to the UK, where he requested political asylum. In all frankness, I have no sympathy for "businessmen" that go from selling bits and bobs in market stalls to multibillionaires in a few years. Fortunes of the magnitude of some of these oligarchs can not possibly be made in the real world without complicity, or partnership, of utterly corrupt government officials that give them control of valuable State assets for peanuts, or worse, on credit. So whatever happens to Ablyazov, who, stupidly, fled the country that risked it for him, is neither here nor there.

However, what happened to his wife and 6 year-old daughter in Italy is an entirely different issue. The wife, Alma Shalabayeva, was living in Rome. Legally, on a Schengen permit obtained as citizen of Kazakhstan. Ditto the 6 year-old daughter, Alua Ablyazova. That did not stop 50 heavily armed operatives from DIGOS (Italy's special forces) to storm the house where she was staying at after midnight last Wednesday 29. She was arrested without a warrant. Her crime? Well, this is where things get interesting.

Shalabayeva's lawyer, Riccardo Olivo, claims that she committed no crime in Italy, she was not wanted in connection to any crime in Italy, nor was there an international warrant on her. Shalabayeva's was arrested for being in Italy with a fake Central African Republic passport. That was allegedly her "crime". But her lawyer claims that Central African Republic Embassy officials confirmed that the passport was legitimate. So the 50 operatives from Kazakhstan's Italy's special forces -note special forces; no immigration, customs or regular police- took Shalabayeva  away to Centro di Identificazione ed Espulsione -Identification and Deportation Centre- on the basis of a deportation order. From there she was to be immediately deported to Kazakhstan, where she has committed no crime either.

Such expedite and efficient process, this being Italy, is completely abnormal. There's an estimated 440,000 illegal immigrants in Italy. How many of those are the target of sting DIGOS operations? Why were Ablyazov's wife and daughter singled out? Further, how many of the "7,944 irregular immigrants detained in 2012" were arrested by DIGOS and had chartered private jets waiting at the ready in Ciampino airport? But this being Italy, those involved in sending Ablyazov's wife to Nazarbayev missed the daughter, and the law prohibits deportation of the mother without the daughter. So back they were sent, by their Kazakh handlers, to the villa from where Shalabayeva was snatched, to arrest her 6 year-old daughter, who once reunited with her mother onboard the jet was sent to modern day Genghis Khan two days later, on Friday.

«MACCHINA INFERNALE» otherwise known as extraordinary rendition

Thus describes lawyer Olivo the operation:

«Sono personalmente intervenuto - prosegue l'avvocato - sui vertici della Procura di Roma per informarli. Il Pm Eugenio Albamonte e il procuratore aggiunto Nello Rossi attraverso anche l’intervento del Procuratore capo Pignatone, sono riusciti a bloccare questa macchina infernale. Ma poi deve essere successo qualcosa, la pressione era troppa e la macchina infernale ha ripreso la sua corsa. Alle 18,30 mamma e figlia decollavano da Ciampino dirette nel loro Paese. Dal punto di vista formale è probabile che tutto sia stato fatto in regola. Da un punto di vista sostanziale hanno dato una donna nelle mani del boia di suo marito. Ed è una cosa raccapricciante, di straordinaria gravità».

Olivo claims to have reached out to relevant authorities from Rome's Attorney's Office (Prosecutor Eugenio Albamonte, deputy prosecutor Nello Rossi and Chief Prosecutor Pignatone), who were able to block the «MACCHINA INFERNALE» otherwise known as extraordinary rendition, but pressure from above (?) prevailed, and so mother and daughter were sent to Kazakhstan, in clear violation to current Italian immigration law that establish that no one can be deported to a country where they can be subjected to persecution, violation to human rights, etc.

Rendition aircraft used owned by Austria's Avcon Jet AG

Olivo makes important questions, such as: "who owned the plane? Who chartered and paid for it?" The plane (OE-HOO) used for this extraordinary rendition belongs to Avcon Jet, an Austrian company that has on its board former Austrian Minister of Finance Andreas Staribacher. The true owners of Avcon seem to have gone the extra mile in having the identities of its majority shareholders hidden behind proxies. Austrian press reports claim that "Borat agents" are behind this "cloak and dager" operation, which ended up with Ablyazov's wife and daughter being placed under house arrest in Kazakhstan. Indeed, this is no laughing matter, as Kazakhstan's KNB intelligence operatives not only are allowed to operate freely in Italy, and in Austria where their intelligence European central command seems to be based, but all Italian authorities involved are effectively acting as Nazarbayev's black ops. 

In light of all this, it is worth asking: who benefits where? ENI, the Italian energy conglomerate in which the Italian state has a 30% stake, has no small amount of business with Nazarbayev. In fact, ENI seems very comfortable dealing with Kazakh thugs, paying bribes to Nazarbayev's son in law to get concessions. It wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that shipping Ablyazov's family as a payback of sorts is out of the question, would it? But what to say of due process in Italy? What of its debased and corrupt ministers and special forces? How can thuggish communist dictators and its intelligence services operate so brazenly? How can Italian officials violate current laws, persecute and endanger innocent people, and children, with such impunity?