Italy Says Wife Of Disgraced Kazakh Banker Can Return

Alma Shalabayeva, the wife of self-exiled Kazakh billionaire Mukhtar Ablyazov, and her daughter Alua.

The Italian government has said it would revoke a deportation order against the wife and daughter of a Kazakh opposition figure who allegedly embezzled several billion dollars from one of Kazakhstan's biggest banks and fled the country.

The wife and small daughter of Mukhtar Ablyazov were seized by Italian police and put on a plane back to Kazakhstan on June 1.

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta said in a letter on July 12 that "it was a grave failure not to inform the government of the entire episode, which had from the start elements and characteristics that were not ordinary."

Kazakh officials have said Ablyazov's wife Alma Shalabayeva, is not under arrest although she is being questioned about false passports that might have been issued to her and other members of her family, including her husband, whose location is unknown.


Based on reporting by Reuters and dpa