Kazakhstan's former Economy Minister Quandyq Bishimbaev has been detained in an alleged bribery case, officials said.
The Central Asian country's Anticorruption Service said on January 10 that Bishimbaev is suspected of accepting bribes.
Bishimbaev was dismissed as economy minister on December 28 by President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who said at the time that a criminal investigation had been launched into Bishimbaev's activities, but didn't give further details.
Bishimbaev's detention was announced a day after a court in Almaty, said the head of Kazakhstan's Unified Pension Fund Ruslan Erdenaev -- and the director of the fund's financial department, Musa Bakhtov, were arrested on embezzlement charges.
The Unified Pension Fund is Kazakhstan's main state-run pension fund for workers in both the state and private sectors.
