A jailed former head of Kazakhstan's state agency on the regulation of monopolies has been ordered to pay a fine of about $6 million after his conviction in a bribery trial.
But Murat Ospanov managed to avoid jail time when the Astana court handed down his penalty on February 13.
Prosecutors had been seeking an 11-year jail sentence.
He was arrested in July on suspicion of accepting a bribe worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ospanov has consistently denied the accusation.
Several former Kazakh officials have faced prosecution on suspicion of graft in recent years.
In October, former Deputy Agriculture Minister Muslim Omiraev was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of accepting a $100,000 bribe.
Also in October, the head of Kazakhstan’s Border Guard Service, Nurlan Zholamanov, was arrested on corruption charges that he denies.
