Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: A court in Kyrgyzstan has jailed the son of a former prime minister for 12 years for treason, a spokesman said Wednesday, while a source said he was accused of spying for neighbouring Kazakhastan.
Altynbek Muraliyev, whose father headed the ex-Soviet Central Asian country's government from 1999 to 2000, received the sentence Tuesday from a court in the capital Bishkek.
Muraliyev was "found guilty of state treason and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and confiscation of property," at a closed doors session of the court, a court spokesman told AFP.
A source in the GKNB national security service told AFP that Muraliyev was detained in November 2014 for spying for neighbouring Kazakhstan.
The court, however, did not confirm the country he was found guilty of spying for, citing the need for secrecy.
Muraliyev was head of the government's department of foreign cooperation at the time of his arrest.
His father, Amangeldy Muraliyev, is one of 27 prime ministers sworn into office since the republic's independence in 1991.
During that time the country has witnessed two revolutions and ethnic violence that claimed hundreds of lives.
Landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is politically close to Russia, and with an economy that is dependent on imports and foreign investment from next-door China.
Up until mid-2014, the country also hosted a base used by Washington in its military operations in Afghanistan.
AFP
