Cortese, Improta, 5 others indicted

(ANSA) - Rome, November 16 - The former head of Rome's flying squad Renato Cortese and the then head of the capital's immigration office Maurizio Improta were sent to trial by a Perugia judge Friday for the alleged abduction of the wife of a Kazakh dissident, Alma Shalabayeva.
    Also indicted were justice of the peace Stefania Lavore and four police officers barring Laura Scipioni, who was cleared.
    Also cleared were three functionaries at the Kazakh embassy whose diplomatic immunity was recognised.
    Prosecutors in February 2017 requested the indictments of Cortese, Improta, the 5 police officers, the justice of the peace and the three embassy functionaries for the alleged kidnapping of Shalabayeva, wife of Kazakh dissident and oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov.
    Italian police officers allegedly gave photos from a fake passport seized from Shalabayeva to Kazakh embassy officials who subsequently used them for the passes for the 2013 deportation of the woman and her daughter Alua, according to the Perugia prosecutors.
    Furthermore, top cop Cortese, Rimini police chief and immigration chief Improta and two other officers are suspected of deliberately failing to identify Shalabayeva as Ablyazov's wife.
    As a result they are under investigation for failing to perform their duty and falsehood, as well as involvement in abduction.
    Three other police and justice of the peace Stefania Lavore are also under investigation.
    In July 2014 Italy's supreme Cassation Court ruled that the deportation of Shalabayeva and her daughter was "manifestly illegitimate".
    Italy rescinded the deportation order after the May 31, 2013, expulsion of Shalabayeva and Alua, who were seized in a nighttime raid and put on a private jet with Kazakh diplomats, was brought to light.
    According to Shalabayeva, some 50 plain-clothes officers mistreated and verbally abused her and her daughter during the operation before turning the two over to the government of Kazakhstan, which has been criticized for human rights abuses.
    Ablyazov, who is wanted in Kazakhstan and Russia, is an outspoken critic of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev.
    Kazakhstan claims Ablyazov, a banker, is not a dissident but an outlaw wanted for a multi-billion-euro embezzlement case at his BTA Bank.
    Shalabayeva and her daughter returned to Italy six months after their controversial deportation, which caused an international scandal.
    They were able to leave Kazakhstan after the authorities in Astana lifted restrictions on their movements, following strenuous lobbying from former Italian foreign minister Emma Bonino.
    "Today I have faith in the Italian judicial system which is seeking those responsible and I thank the Perugia prosecutor's office which has been very autonomous and diligent in its investigations," Alma Shalabayeva told ANSA recently.
    "A very serious job has been done to get at the truth behind the abduction of myself and daughter".