In 2013, Roman police, unable to find the fleeing Ablasova, detained his wife, Alma Shalabayev. Within 48 hours, she and her six-year-old daughter were taken to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
Renato Cortes and Mauricio Import, then heads of the Rapid Reaction Force and the Italian Police Immigration Unit, respectively, were sentenced to five years in prison.
Cortes is currently the chief of the Palermo police, while Imports heads the railway police.
However, they will not have to go to prison or leave their posts until the conviction is upheld on final appeal.
In this case, five more police officers have been sentenced to five years in prison, and two more law enforcement officers have been sentenced to four and three and a half years in prison, respectively, ANSA reports.
Seventh defendant, Judge Stefania Lavore, has been acquitted of “kidnapping” but found guilty of falsifying documents. She was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
Shalabayeva’s deportation caused a scandal in Italy, as the oligarch’s wife was handed over to Kazakh officials without checking that she had no grounds for seeking asylum, and there would be no possibility of appealing against the deportation decision.
The Italian government later persuaded Kazakhstan to lift the exit ban on Shalabayeva, and she returned to Europe seven months later.
According to ANSA, Shalabayeva currently lives in Rome.
