Select a language
According to La Repubblica, Italian police raided a house in Rome on May 28 in search of Mukthar Ablyazov, an opponent of Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbaev, and ended up detaining his wife, Alma Shalabayeva, and their daughter.
The operation seems to have been directly solicited by the Kazakh ambassador. Shalabayeva filed a request for asylum, but was turned down, expelled from Italy, and flown back to Kazakhstan, were she is currently under house arrest.
Despite Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s promise to clarify details of the operation, the daily notes that nobody in the government has accepted responsibility or even seems to have been fully informed about it. Meanwhile, reports La Repubblica, Nazarbaev, a key business partner of Italy, was enjoying a holiday in Sardinia hosted by a friend of Silvio Berlusconi.
Was this article useful? If so we are delighted!
It is freely available because we believe that the right to free and independent information is essential for democracy. But this right is not guaranteed forever, and independence comes at a cost. We need your support in order to continue publishing independent, multilingual news for all Europeans.
Discover our subscription offers and their exclusive benefits and become a member of our community now!
