Italian Supreme Court to review convictions of five police officers in Shalabayeva case

Italy's Court of Cassation will reconsider the verdict against five police officers convicted for the alleged kidnapping of Alma Shalabayeva, the spouse of Kazakh opposition leader Mukthar Ablyazov, and her six-year-old daughter. The defendants, among them former mobile squad leader Renato Cortese, contend that the earlier judgments mischaracterized their actions as a coordinated seizure, pointing to procedural anomalies and the absence of proof of an agreed plan.

Their lawyers argue that each officer acted based on the information available at the time, without a criminal intent to abduct. The prosecution, however, asserts that the officers acted in a unified manner to fulfill a plan to hand the women over to Kazakh authorities, citing repeated procedural irregularities. The appeal follows a complex history of trials, acquittals, and a four-year prison sentence that was later upheld before reaching the supreme court.