Rakhat Aliyev, the son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, was considering seeking political asylum in Austria on Monday after the Kazakh ministry of interior issued an international warrant for his arrest.

Mr Aliyev is wanted for questioning in Kazakhstan in connection with his alleged involvement in the kidnapping last January of two senior bankers at Nurbank, a bank he controls in the Central Asian republic.