ASTANA, January 15 (RIA Novosti) - Rakhat Aliyev, former son-in-law and outspoken critic of the Kazakh president, was found guilty of organizing a criminal group and sentenced to 20 years in prison at a trial 'in absentia' held on Tuesday.

Aliyev is currently living in Austria. On August 7 last year, an Austrian court rejected a request from Kazakhstan to extradite him, saying he could not receive a fair trial in the Central Asian country.

The former husband of President Nursultan Nazarbayev's eldest daughter Dariga was fired as Kazakhstan's ambassador to Austria on May 26, 2007 after he accused the Kazakh president of totalitarian rule and announced he would run against the leader at the 2012 election. Weeks later, the president's daughter divorced him.

Kazakh prosecutors accused Aliyev of kidnapping two top managers of Kazakhstan's Nurbank.

The court also passed a guilty verdict 'in absentia' on Alnur Musayev, a former head of the Kazakh Security Committee, who faced similar charges.

A total of 22 people were targeted in the investigation, of whom two have been cleared of charges. Others received up to 18 years behind bars.

Nazarbayev, who has ruled the large ex-Soviet state for 17 years, last year signed a constitutional amendment allowing him to be re-elected an unlimited number of times, a rule that will not apply to subsequent leaders.

Despite criticism of his autocratic style of leadership, he remains popular in his home country, which has seen strong oil-driven economic growth in recent years.