Kazakhstan says still wants Aliyev extradited

ASTANA, Aug 9 (Reuters) Kazakhstan will make further attempts to secure the extradition of a political foe of the nation's president from Austria, the interior ministry said today.

Yesterday, an Austrian court ruled against extraditing Rakhat Aliyev, a former son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev who has fallen out with the long-serving leader, as it believed he could not be guaranteed a fair trial at home.

Aliyev has said his life may be in danger if extradited and said the case against him was motivated by his announcement that he intended to run for president in the oil-producing Central Asian state.

''We'll turn to courts of higher instance all the way to the the international court,'' Interior Ministry spokesman Bagdat Kozhekhmetov told reporters in the capital Astana.

He did not specify which international court. In Vienna, a judiciary spokesman said the ruling could be appealed, but this was unlikely to succeed since a witness had told the lower court he had been offered money to testify against Aliyev.

Kozhakhmetov said: ''There is irrefutable evidence collected by the investigation that was not only ignored by the Austrian court, it was not even taken into account.'' Nazarbayev ordered police to investigate Aliyev in May on suspicion of kidnapping senior officials at Nurbank, a bank Aliyev controlled. The leader also fired him from his post as Kazakhstan's ambassador to Austria.

Aliyev denies all wrongdoing.

Austrian police arrested him in June following the extradition request but later freed him on bail. Nazarbayev's eldest daughter Dariga divorced him shortly afterwards.

A separate money laundering investigation against Aliyev is still under way in Austria.

REUTERS GL BST2002