Kazakh Deputy Defense Minister On Trial For Bribery

The Almaty City Military Court has started hearings into a bribery case against Kazakh Deputy Defense Minister Baghdat Maikeev.

Maikeev was arrested in February for allegedly accepting some $1.5 million in bribes.

The hearings on May 12 were short and Judge Asqar Qaiyrov adjourned the case until May 15.

Maikeev, who has served as deputy defense minister since September 2011, is not the first top Kazakh military official to face trial for graft in recent months.

In December, a former deputy commander of Kazakhstan's Air Force, General Asqar Buldeshev, was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in jail for abuse of office.

The former head of the Kazakh military's Armament Department, General Almas Asenov, was sentenced last summer to 11 years in jail for accepting bribes to ignore faulty checks on An-72 aircraft.