Former Kazakh nuclear chief handed jail term
A closed court in Kazakhstan handed a harsh prison sentence on Friday to Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the former president of Kazatomprom, the national atomic power company, for stealing uranium assets.
It has also cast an unfavourable light on Kazakhstan’s observation of human rights.
Mr Dzhakishev was arrested last May and accused of embezzling state shares in uranium mines in collusion with Mukhtar Ablyazov, the former chairman of BTA, one of Kazakhstan’s top banks. Kazakh law enforcers have since added new charges, including money-laundering and bribe-taking. Mr Dzhakishev has pleaded not guilty to all the accusations. Seven other Kazatomprom officials have also been charged with corruption.
Nurlan Beisekeyev, lawyer for Mr Dzhakishev, said the court had followed the instructions of the Kazakh prosecutor at a hearing on Friday, sentencing his client to 14-years in a maximum security prison.
“Listening to the verdict, one got the impression that there was no judgment at all . . . it was like the reading of a carbon copy,” he told journalists outside the court, Interfax reported.
Under Mr Dzhakishev’s leadership, Kazatomprom was transformed from a bankrupt Soviet mining behemoth into a global nuclear power company with partners in North America, Europe, Japan, China and Russia.
It bought a 10 per cent stake in Westinghouse Electric, the US nuclear company owned by Toshiba, in 2007, in a bid to gain nuclear fuel processing technology and international markets.
In a video leaked to the internet last year, Mr Dzhakishev linked his arrest to a struggle between Russia and Kazakhstan for uranium assets and global nuclear fuel markets. He said he had opposed a move by Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear power company, to buy a share in Uranium One, a Canadian-listed mining company, which has uranium assets in Kazakhstan.
Opposition activists say the case against Mr Dzhakishev, carried out in the name of an anti-corruption drive, was designed to put pressure on Mr Ablyazov who fled Kazakhstan last year after BTA bank was taken over by the government.
In a statement issued last month, Mr Dzhakishev accused Kazakhstan of violating its international human rights obligations by holding him in solitary confinement under an “information blockade”.
Mr Beisekeyev said on Friday that Mr Dzhakishev, who is suffering from hypertension, had been denied his right to medical care and the lawyer of his choice during his time in detention.
Kazakhstan overtook Canada and Australia to become the world’s biggest uranium producer last year and is poised to gain strategic importance as a source of nuclear fuel as global interest in atomic energy revives.
This came as Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, reorganised his government on Friday, creating a new oil and gas ministry and shuffling ministers.
Sauat Mynbaev, the former minister of energy and mineral resources, was appointed by Mr Nazarbayev to head the new oil and gas ministry, and instructed to guard the state’s interests in the strategic sector.
Mr Mynbaev, who has led Kazakhstan’s efforts to win better terms for his country at foreign-led oil and gas projects, is currently seeking resolution of a tax dispute with oil group led by Eni and BG at the giant Karachaganak field.
Zhanar Aitzhanova, the former deputy trade minister, was appointed minister of economy, replacing Bakyt Sultanov. Mr Nazarbayev said he would shortly give Mr Sultanov a new post indicating that more government changes were planned. “He will be satisfied,” he said.
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