Aliyev rubbishes Tonio Borg link

Rakhat Aliyev, the former son-in-law of Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev, has described as “blatantly false” the allegation that he had bribed anyone, including Foreign Minister Tonio Borg, to obtain a residence permit in Malta. He said the €150,000 being mentioned on EU news portal Euractiv.com is the amount claimed by his former lawyer, Pio Valletta, to obtain the residence permit from the Maltese authorities. Through his lawyer Joe Giglio, Dr Aliyev insisted with The Sunday Times that the Kazakh secret service was involved in “twisting facts” in a “devious manner”. Dr Borg, who on Tuesday faces the European Parliament’s grilling session in his bid to become Malta’s new European Health Commissioner, has already denounced the bribery allegations, saying they were “absolutely preposterous”. Dr Borg had told The Times he had never met Dr Aliyev, which was confirmed by the former Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister and Ambassador to Austria. Dr Aliyev has been living in Malta since 2010. He faces accusations by the Kazakh regime of human rights abuse and torture and of involvement in the murder of two bankers. Several requests for Dr Aliyev to be extradited to Kazakhstan from...