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For subscribers » Other » Kazakh top manager detained on corruption charges - paper | 11 September 2008
The
Kazakh mass-selling tabloid Vremya reported on 9 September that the former
head of the Kazakhtelecom and KazMunayGaz national companies, Serik
Burkitbayev, had been arrested on corruption charges.
The newspaper learnt
about the arrest from its source in the law-enforcement agencies, while
the spokesman for the National Security Committee, which deals with
high-level corruption cases, Kenzhebulat Beknazarov, has neither denied nor
confirmed this
information.
The
newspaper claimed that “according to one of the theories, Serik
Burkitbayev, when he headed Kazakhtelecom, had handed over special
equipment to tap telephone conversations to Rakhat Aliyev and showed
Aliyev’s trusted people how to use it”. Rakhat Aliyev is the former
son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev who is now living in exile in
Austria after Kazakhstan charged him with plotting a coup d’état and high
treason. Mr Burkitbayev was appointed head of KazMunayGaz in May 2008 but
he was unexpectedly fired in August.
The opposition Svoboda Slova
newspaper suggested this week that Rakhat Aliyev himself had grassed on Mr
Burkitbayev for his failure to fulfil certain promises given to Mr Aliyev
during the nationalization of the Mangistaumunaygaz company, which was
believed to be controlled by Mr Aliyev. This is the second high-profile
detention of top manager in the country. Zhaksybek Kulekyev, a former
government minister and the former head of the Kazakhstan Temir Zholy railway
company, was arrested on corruption charges in April 2008.
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