A variety of falsified lawsuits have been brought against the Khrapunov family \u2013 Victor, Leila, their son Iliyas and his wife, and their younger son Daniel, in several US cities: Los Angeles, California, San Francisco, California, and New York city, New York, by the city of Almaty and the Republic of Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
In a similar fashion, legal actions were initiated in the UK, Ukraine, Russia, and earlier in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
The Khapunovs\u2019 faced legal actions in the above countries despite the fact that they are permanent residents of Switzerland. Leila, Victor and their son Daniel have lived in Switzerland since 2007, their daughter Elvira \u2013 since 1994, their son Iliyas \u2013 since 1998.<\/p>\n
Kazakhstan authorities intentionally created the situation with the legal actions against the Khrapunovs after they had failed to quickly achieve success as part of their request for mutual legal assistance which Kazakhstan lodged with the Swiss Justice Department on 20 February 2012.
\nFollowing this, Kazakhstan agents switched to bringing lawsuits in other countries, acting on behalf of two entities, the city of Almaty and the Republic of Kazakhstan, between which there is, effectively, no difference.
\nBecause there is a rigid top-down command structure run by president Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan. This kind of actions gives an insight into how unscrupulous are Kazakhstan powers that be, pursuing the sole aim of damaging the Khrapunov family as much as possible.<\/p>\n
The city of Almaty initiated its first legal proceedings<\/em> in the USA, in the federal court of Los Angeles, California, against Victor Khraunov, myself, our son Iliyas and his wife, our daughter Elvira and her husband. Based on this, the Los Angeles court denied the matter, ruling that this jurisdiction was inappropriate. But the City of Almaty\u2019s attorneys filed a new complaint on 31 July 2017, having succeeded in returning it to the same judge after an appeal.<\/p>\n The second legal proceedings were initiated by the Republic of Kazakhstan<\/em> in San Fransisco against our son Iliyas Khrapunov and opposition politician Muratbek Ketebayev, Mukhtar Ablyazov\u2019s close associate, on charges of hacking. The third lawsuit, similar to the other two, was brought by the city of Almaty in New York City by the Republic of Kazakhstan\u2019s BTA Bank and the city of Almaty.<\/em> In London<\/em>, one principal legal action and several consequential hearings are currently taking place. For this purpose, the Kazakhstan party initiates lawsuits seeking to put a lien on the defendants\u2019 assets so as to secure positions which would benefit the claimant in the course of the hearings. The paradox<\/em> of the legal actions initiated by the city of Almaty, the Republic of Kazakhstan, and BTA Bank in the USA and UK, is that they require the Khrapunovs attend the hearings to give their testimony, while the Kazakhstan government had Interpol issue an international arrest warrant against Victor Khrapunov, Leila Khrapunov, and Iliyas Khrapunov. For instance, if some of them have failed to appear before the court, they could be held in contempt of it. In Ukraine<\/em>, a criminal case of hacking initiated by Kazakhstan is being heard.<\/p>\n We have no information available about charges that could have been brought in Russia.<\/p>\n Summary<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The Kazakhstan government refused to transfer to Swiss jurisdiction the hearings of proceedings initiated by Kazakhstan charging the Khrapunovs with establishing an organized one-family criminal group, because they feared a fair ruling by an impartial Swiss court. I will do my best to answer questions logically arising in this context.<\/p>\n <\/li>\n So, the only reason for all this, it has to be reiterated, is their desire to exhaust the Khrapunovs by involving them in as many court hearings as long as possible and taking as long as possible.<\/p>\n We hope that British and US courts deliver a fair judgement, acknowledging that Switzerland is the appropriate jurisdiction for the Khrapunovs and rejecting Kazakhstan and the city of Almaty\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n It should also be explained why the claimant files different lawsuits, making believe it is either the city of Almaty or the Republic of Kazakhstan that brings them. In December 2015, the city of Almaty and attorney \u041c\u0415 Christophe Emonet, Pestalozzi Avocats, on behalf of his Kazakhstani client brought in Switzerland<\/em> civil lawsuits against 11 members of the Khrapunov family civil lawsuits for an incredibly huge total. Our position<\/em> is as follows: the Khrapunov family is prepared to take part in court hearings in Swiss territory. The Kazakhstan public is thus being misled, with millions upon millions of dollars from Kazakhstan\u2019s from Kazakhstan taxpayers\u2019 pockets spent on these trials for the sake of trials.<\/p>\n It is important to note<\/em> that US and London court trials have up to now considered only one issue, that of the right jurisdiction for the Khrapunovs. In other words, the above countries\u2019 courts have been considering the issue of whether the city of Almaty and Republic of Kazakhstan\u2019s lawsuits should be admitted to examination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A variety of falsified lawsuits have been brought against the Khrapunov family \u2013 Victor, Leila, their son Iliyas and his wife, and their younger son Daniel, in several US cities: Los Angeles, California, San Francisco, California, and New York city, New York, by the city of Almaty and the Republic of Kazakhstan. In a similar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-persecution-of-the-khrapunov-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leila-khrapunova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leila-khrapunova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leila-khrapunova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leila-khrapunova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leila-khrapunova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17086"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.leila-khrapunova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17089,"href":"https:\/\/www.leila-khrapunova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17086\/revisions\/17089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leila-khrapunova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leila-khrapunova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leila-khrapunova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leila-khrapunova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe civil lawsuit was brought by the city of Almaty, which is an absurdity, because the Almaty mayor is appointed by the president Nazarbayev\u2019s decree, i.e., is 100%-controlled by the president.
\nAll of the budget revenue raised by the city of Almaty goes first to the republican budget, and then, based on the decision of the Republic of Kazakhstan represented by the Kazakhstan Finance Ministry, a part of this revenue is transferred to the city of Almaty\u2019s mayor\u2019s office to be spent on purposes designated by the Republic of Kazakhstan President Office and the Kazakhstan Government.
\nOne can therefore claim that there is, effectively, no difference between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the city of Almaty\u2019s lawsuits, this is in fact one entity from the perspective of handling political and financial issues. As the city of Almaty mayor is president Nazarbayev\u2019s political appointee rather than a manager elected by the city of Almaty people, legal actions brought in Los Angeles against Almaty\u2019s ex-mayor and his family resident in the Swiss city of Geneva, are an absurdity obvious to any reasonable person. The right jurisdiction to hear Victor Khrapunov\u2019s case is Switzerland, where he has lived since 2007, rather than California, which he has never been to.<\/p>\n
\nThis was the second suit brought against Iliyas Khrapunov outside Switzerland, whereas Iliyas lives in Switzerland with his family.
\nMuratbek Ketebayev, according to media reports, has been granted political asylum in Poland, where he lives.
\nThe defendants\u2019 lawyers challenged the Republic of Kazakhstan\u2019s lawsuit on the grounds that defendants are resident in other countries than the USA.<\/p>\n
\nThe city of Almaty and BTA Bank came up with an idea that Victor Khrapunov and Mukhtar Ablyazov have joined forces, i.e., Ablyazov\u2019s organized criminal group was merged with that of the Khrapunovs for managing their joint property, etc.
\nAt this stage, the legitimacy of the jurisdiction is being considered in New York, as the defendants are resident in other countries than the USA \u2013 Switzerland and France.
\nTo sum up, as of 2017, three different instances of the state of New York, i.e., three different courts of the state of New York, were in parallel hearing three different lawsuits against the Khrapunovs and Ablyazov.
\nAll the lawsuits were at this stage focusing solely on the jurisdiction issue.
\nUp to now, there have been no hearings on the substance of the lawsuits, as the legitimacy of jurisdiction over the Khrapunovs and Ablyazov in the state of New York remained an open question.<\/p>\n
\nBTA Bank\u2019s strategy at London courts is, in my view, to preclude a final judgement on the substance of the matter. BTA Bank\u2019s attorneys have been initiating several parallel proceedings to have a lien put on the assets as a protective enforcement measure, seeking to deprive the defendant of financial ability to secure judicial protection.<\/p>\n
\nAs a result of Kazakhstan\u2019s multiple lawsuits, foreign courts are flooded with a lot of parallel lawsuits against the Khrapunovs and Ablyazov, on which Kazakhstan\u2019s government machinery managed by president Nazarbayev spends a huge quantity of Kazakhstan\u2019s human and financial resources and Kazakhstan taxpayers\u2019 money.<\/p>\n
\nThis implies that the Khrapunovs, who live in Switzerland, cannot travel to other countries, of which the charging party, i.e., the city of Almaty, the Republic of Kazakhstan, and BTA Bank, are well aware.
\nOne can very well see the idea behind this: to put them in a situation where they would be susceptible to a mistake and to take advantage of this mistake so as to deprive them of their right to judicial defense.<\/p>\n
\nTo provide an example, the attorneys of the Kazakhstan party required that Iliyas Khrapunov appear before the London court. BTA Bank\u2019s attorneys sought to convince the court that this involves no risks for our son Iliyas, suggesting that London is as safe a European city as Geneva. As a result, the London court ruled that Iliyas Khrapunov must appear before the judges.
\nIliyas\u2019s attorneys challenged this ruling, providing information that the Kazakhstan government had Interpol issue an international arrest warrant against Iliyas Khrapunov, which BTA Bank withheld from the court. The Appeals Court of London reversed the previous ruling, after it had become known that BTA Bank had misled two judges.<\/p>\n
\nThe goal of president Nazarbayev\u2019s law enforcement agencies is not a fair trial, they only seek to bring the largest possible number of lawsuits against the Khrapunovs all over the world, thereby exhausting them financially, stealing their time and robbing them of years of their lives.
\nMy argument stems from profound inconsistencies of Kazakhstan\u2019s actions and Kazakhstan investigating agencies\u2019 loose interpretation of laws as part of legal proceedings which they initiated in various parts of the world against the Khrapunov family on behalf of Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n\n
\nThe claim that the city of Almaty (or the city of Almaty\u2019s mayor\u2019s office) is a municipal authority independent of the Republic of Kazakhstan government, enables the claimant to file a multitude of lawsuits, formally brought by a number of Kazakhstan authorities.
\nHence the Kazakhstan party artificially vilifies the Khrapunovs in various judicial instances.
\nThis also explains why Nazarbayev\u2019s authorities, in trials which they initiate, present Iliyas Khrapunov and Mukhtar Ablyazov as hideous people, who are no better than murderers and are thus to be feared.<\/p>\n
\nThis far-fetched claim is probably explained by the haste to suspend the running of the periods of limitation, which would have long expired had the Kazakhstan party not resorted to subterfuges intended to prolong these periods.<\/p>\n
\nTherefore, the propaganda launched in Kazakhstan\u2019s Nazarbayev-controlled media reporting distorted news on court trials involving the Khrapunovs, should be called deliberately slanderous and regarded as a way of pressure on public opinion in various countries.
\nThe Kazakhstan propaganda and deliberate distortion of information regarding the ongoing court trials and the Khrapunov\u2019s role in them are meant to benefit the executors of the \u201csentence\u201d passed by president Nazarbayev himself.
\nThose obeying dictator Nazarbayev\u2019s will, primarily the Kazakhstan law enforcement agencies, running ahead of the reality, seek to proclaim in media their victories in court trials, which they initiated in foreign lands \u2013 the USA, UK, and Switzerland, for the rumors of these victories to reach Nursultan Nazarbayev\u2019s ears.<\/p>\n