The widow of a Kazakh oligarch who lived in Malta in exile has won a human rights case against the country because it complied with a freezing order requested by Kazakhstan without questioning it.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) awarded Elnara Shorazova €2,000 in compensation after ruling that she had been deprived of the enjoyment of her property.

Shorazova is an Austrian national who became the second wife of Rakhat Aliyev, an exile who lived in Malta for four years before he was found dead in an Austrian jail in 2015.

The ECHR found that the criminal court in Malta deprived Shorazova of safeguards against an arbitrary or disproportionate interference for nearly eight years, during which it repeatedly extended the freezing order every six months.

“The court finds it disconcerting that, in nearly eight years, no authority or domestic court thoroughly examined the matter in legal terms as well as ascertained the applicant’s situation in the light of the available information – despite the government’s claim that they were in regular contact with the Kazakh authorities,” the court said.

It turned down her complaint about a breach of her right to a fair trial due to the length of redress proceedings in the Maltese constitutional court.

Found hanged in prison

Aliyev had previously been married to the daughter of the then president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. After holding several government posts, he became ambassador to Austria in 2002 before returning to Kazakhstan in 2005 as vice-minister of foreign affairs.

Rakhat Aliyev

However, political tensions arose between him and his former father-in-law, leading to a warrant being issued for his arrest and he was forced to flee.

Aliyev married Shorazova in 2009 and they lived in Malta until 2013. He died in prison in Austria in 2015, while awaiting trial on charges of kidnapping and murdering two Kazakh bankers, after having expressed fear that his life was in danger from Kazakhstan’s secret police. He was posthumously found not guilty.

Shorazova challenged the pronouncement of suicide but an Austrian court later confirmed he had hanged himself.

In 2008 and 2009, following two trials in absentia, Aliyev had been convicted in Kazakhstan of political offences and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In subsequent years, a series of investigations were undertaken and, following requests by the Kazakh authorities, freezing orders on the couple’s property were issued in Germany, Cyprus, Liechtenstein and Greece. These were all discontinued and lifted.

In 2013, the Maltese authorities received a request for legal assistance in relation to Aliyev and Shorazova, asking for several witnesses to be questioned and evidence collected. A year later, following a request by the Kazakh authorities, Malta issued a freezing order in respect of the couple’s assets in Malta.

The asset freeze was still in effect at the time the application was lodged with the ECHR and was only lifted in July last year when the Maltese authorities were notified of the case.

In her argument before the court, Shorazova complained that the authorities should not have complied with the request for legal assistance and should not have issued the freezing order requested by the Kazakhstan authorities as the regime there could not offer any guarantees of a fair trial.

Freezing order 'harsh, restrictive'

Seven judges, including Maltese judge Lorraine Schembri Orland, ruled that the freezing order constituted interference with Shorazova’s property rights.

They also ruled that, over a period of nearly eight years, the legality of the matter and her situation were not examined thoroughly by the domestic courts. Sufficient evidence existed indicating that the proceedings in Kazakhstan may have a political motive, deserving particular evaluation by the Maltese courts.

On the freezing order itself, the court found it to have been a “harsh and restrictive measure” and that various extensions, issued every six months, had been automatic and without Sharozova being given a hearing.

The ECHR also noted that the freezing order would not have been lifted had the case not been filed.

On the constitutional proceedings, which lasted almost five years, the court found that although long, they were not excessive in the circumstances.

The court ordered Malta to pay Sharozova €2,000 in damages and €600 in court expenses.