Nazarbaev Appoints Daughter Deputy Prime Minister

Darigha Nazarbaeva (pictured in 2012) has been a lawmaker since 2004. In April 2014, she was elected deputy speaker of the parliament's lower chamber, the Mazhilis.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has appointed his daughter, Darigha Nazarbaeva, as the Central Asian state's deputy prime minister.

Nazarbaev's decree appeared on the presidential website on September 11.

Nazarbaeva, 52, has been a lawmaker since 2004. In April 2014, she was elected deputy speaker of the parliament's lower chamber, the Mazhilis.

Nazarbaeva had a long marriage to Kazakh businessman, politician, and diplomat Rakhat Aliev until he left Kazakhstan for Europe and they divorced in 2007.

Aliev, who was later sentenced to 40 years in jail in absentia in Kazakhstan on treason and corruption charges, claimed then that the divorce was executed without his consent on President Nazarbaev's orders.

Aliev was found dead in an Austrian prison in February, where he was being held pending trial on charges related to three murders committed in Kazakhstan in 2006.

With reporting by Akorda.kz