The former Premier of Kazakhstan Serik Akhmetov has been officially accused of six crimes on four counts of the Criminal Code, reported Interfax.
“Serik Akhmetov is accused of misappropriation of property at a vast scale (item 176, part 4), bribe taking (item 311) and illegal involvement in business (item 310),” reported the same source.
He is also charged under three counts of item 307 (abuse of powers) of the Criminal Code of the Republic. As soon as the official accusations have been brought against Akhmetov, he ceased to be a suspect.
“The suspect Serik Akhmetov’s status has changed. Now is the accused. The Prosecutor of the Karaganda district has familiarized himself with the criminal case and admitted that the proofs are sufficient to bring a charge against Akhmetov and take the matter to the court to pass the sentence,” said the same source.
Investigation of this criminal case took about 5 months. According to the investigation, illegal actions of Akhmetov have caused a damage worth over 1 billion tenge to the state.
* Till October 22, 2014 Serik Akhmetov was the former Defense Minister of Kazakhstan, from September 24, 2012 till April 2, 2014 – he was Prime Minister, since January 20, 2012 he was senior Vice Premier and earlier akim of the Karaganda district. On November 18, 2014 he was placed under house arrest in connection with the case on wide scale embezzlement of budgetary funds.
In his interview to Forbes magazine on November 20, 2014 economist Peter Svoik said that “arrest of this person could mean the beginning of the electoral campaign of President.” He believes that the presidential elections could be conducted ahead of time. Three months later the Kazakhstan government announced that the presidential elections will be conducted ahead of time on April 16, 2015.
