Azerbaijan, Baku, Sep. 27 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
The Prosecutor's Office of Rome started the investigation against three Kazakh diplomats on the extradition of Alma Shalabaeva, wife of fugitive Kazakh banker Mukhtar Ablyazov from Italy to Kazakhstan, RIA Novosti reported with the reference to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
According to the newspaper, Kazakh ambassador to Italy Adrian Elemesov, political advisor of the Embassy Nurlan Hasen and attache for consular affairs Yerzhan Esirkepov are under investigation. All three diplomats may be called to the prosecutor's office for questioning in the near future.
Earlier Mukhtar Ablyazov's daughter accused Kazakh diplomats living in Rome of kidnapping her family last spring, and said Italian officials were accomplices.
In a formal criminal complaint in Rome she named three diplomats who she said were responsible for kidnapping her mother Alma Shalabayeva and her six-year-old sister on May 31, while searching for her father. She also called on authorities to identify Italian interior ministry and police officials who "behaved against the law when expelling the woman and her daughter".
In late May the wife of the fugitive oligarch Alma Shalabayeva, and their six-year-old daughter were detained in an overnight raid in Italy. They were rushed onto a private jet with Kazakh diplomats and flown back to Kazakhstan.
Later Ablyazov was detained in France. Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine are currently seeking the extradition of Ablyazov for the economic crimes committed in their territories.
Kazakhstan's authorities accuse Ablyazov of fraud and embezzlement charges while he was heading Kazakh BTA Bank. Ablyazov has denied charges against him, which he claimed are meant to remove him as a political opponent to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.