ASTANA -- Former Environment Minister Nurlan Iskakov was detained by Kazakhstan's financial police on charges of financial manipulation and embezzling some $6.2 million from the state budget, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.
Other officials of the Environment Ministry have also been charged with financial crimes. Deputy Environment Minister Alzhan Braliev was detained on February 28, and another deputy minister, Zeyniulla Sarsenbayev, was detained on March 3.
Sarsenbayev was released later, but remains under house arrest during the investigations into his alleged financial misdeeds.
Braliev remains in jail, and his wife Amina Bralieva says that all her attempts to get him released before his trial starts have been fruitless.