Kazakhstan's Aliyev says to apologise to president

ALMATY, June 18 (Reuters) Rakhat Aliyev, son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, was quoted as saying he planned to apologise to the long-serving leader for criticising him publicly.

Aliyev is wanted on kidnapping charges in the oil-producing Central Asian state. He said on May 26 his case was politically motivated and accused the Kazakh leader, who had ordered police to investigate him, of usurping power.

In the weekend edition of Kazakhstan's Vremya newspaper he said did not mean to insult the president.

''First of all I would like to say that I am prepared to personally explain to the president the political statements I made in that statement,'' he said in an interview.

''I would like to apologise to the president and say that I made the statement under the influence of strong emotions. I can even say that it was probably an emotional breakdown.'' In May, Nazarbayev ordered police to investigate Aliyev on suspicion of kidnapping senior officials at a mid-size Kazakh bank and sacked him from his position as ambassador to Austria.

He was served with an international arrest warrant and is now free on bail in Vienna, awaiting an extradition hearing based on charges of kidnapping and running an organised crime network in Kazakhstan.

Aliyev said last week he had also been divorced from his wife, Nazarbayev's eldest daughter, without his consent.

Vremya said after the interview Aliyev asked it not to publish the part where he says he would apologise to Nazarbayev, saying it was a personal matter, but later agreed to it.

REUTERS HK RK1332