ALMATY -- One of the major television channels in Kazakhstan, "Rakhat-TV," is changing its brand name, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.
The company's editor of information programs, Anton Fedorov, told RFE/RL on August 28 that starting September 1, the channel would have a new name: "STV."
Fedorov did not elaborate on the reasons for the change.
“Rakhat-TV” used to be a part of the Rakhat Group Corporation owned by the former presidential son-in-law Rakhat Aliev.
Aliev had to leave Kazakhstan for Austria in 2007 after investigations into his alleged involvement in a kidnapping of two top managers of NurBank in Almaty were launched.
Last year, he was tried in absentia and sentenced to 40 years of jail for kidnapping, extortion, and treason.
He insists the case is politically motivated.