Bans lifted on Kazakh president son-in-law's TV, paper

ALMATY, June 6 (Reuters) Kazakhstan's KTK TV channel, owned by the son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and suspended by the authorities last month, has resumed operations, its staff said today.

The owner, Rakhat Aliyev, has fallen out with Nazarbayev and turned into one of his fiercest public critics. He faces extradition and kidnapping charges in his Central Asian homeland.

Kazakh law enforcement agencies suspended operations of his KTK channel and his Karavan newspaper in late May, originally for three months. The United States had criticised Kazakhstan for suspending the TV channel.

The weekly Karavan also won a court decision allowing it to resume printing on the condition that it did not print stories related to criminal proceedings in Kazakhstan against Aliyev, the Kazakhstan Today news agency, another of Aliyev's media holdings, reported.

A KTK technical coordinator, who asked not to be named, said: ''We have started working again.'' A test signal on KTK's frequency returned to its regular broadcast today, but the coordinator said it would not be showing news programmes for at least one day.

Aliyev, who is married to Nazarbayev's eldest daughter Dariga, is accused of abducting two executives of a Kazakh bank, Nurbank, that he controls. He has denied wrongdoing.

Kazakhstan Today quoted an Almaty court ruling as saying Karavan could resume printing on the condition that it did not report on or print any commentaries on the criminal investigation linked to Nurbank.

Austria freed Aliyev on 1 million euros bail on Sunday but he has to remain in the country to face extradition proceedings, officials have said. It is likely to be a long and complex process since Austria has no bilateral agreements with Kazakhstan.

Reuters AM DB2329