Thursday, June 21, 2012 -
The deputy governor of the Kyrgyz province Talas has been convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for receiving bribes, Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor-General said in a statement on Wednesday.
Deputy Governor Nusupzhan Bektenov was convicted of extorting bribes from a businessman. Law enforcement authorities found 3,000 soms in his office in August 2011, as well as a sack of flour in the trunk of his car.
Bektenov was first acquitted of corruption in February 2012, but the provincial court overturned the acquittal following an appeal lodged by prosecutors.
The disgraced public official was immediately taken into custody to a detention center in Talas.
Corruption is an endemic problem in Kyrgyzstan, and the current government – led by the pro-business Almazbek Atambayev – is trying to cut down on the practice in an effort to improve the investment climate.
Kyrgyzstan is still trying to economically recover from the instability and violence in 2010 which resulted from the ouster of its then-president Kurmanbek Bakiev.