Tyrant’s grandson asks for asylum in Britain
A grandson of a Kazakhstan autocrat is seeking political asylum in Britain because he is afraid of his relatives after uncovering alleged Russian corruption involving billions of dollars.
Aisultan Nazarbayev, who calls himself Aisultan Rakhat, once led a playboy’s life, with Kanye West giving a concert to guests at his wedding, but he fell out with his family after his father, Rakhat Aliyev, 52, died in an Austrian jail while awaiting trial over the murder of two Kazakh bankers.
He is the son of Dariga Nazarbayeva, 56, the eldest of three daughters of Nursultan Nazarbayev, 79, who was president for 30 years until he resigned last March.
Rakhat, a former vice-president of the country’s football association, is known for passionate outbursts on social media.
At Southwark crown court last year he received an 18-month suspended jail term for biting a police officer when he was discovered in a stranger’s flat in Covent Garden.
He is believed to be living in the UK.
A graduate of Sandhurst military academy, he says his drug and mental health problems were the result of the death in 2015 of his father, whom he believes was murdered.
‘‘I’m requesting political asylum in Britain,’’ he said in a Facebook post yesterday. ‘‘My last five years have been chequered. It’s time people found out what really happened and why.’’
He said that he was under pressure from his family. ‘‘It’s all about the fact that I have information about large-scale corruption between the governments of Russia and Kazakhstan. I’m talking about billions of US dollars, stolen from the Kakakh people.’’
Rakhat said that five years ago his mother and her husband, Kayrat Sharipbayev, launched a ‘‘behind the scenes war’’ on his former father-in-law, with whom he became closer. He claimed this was linked to a row over who would receive profits from gas deals that were funnelled through a shell company.
Tony Blair was criticised when he became a political adviser to Nazarbayev in 2011, with his consulting company making millions of pounds over at least six years.