ASTANA -- The former deputy secretary of Kazakhstan's Security Council, Marat Shaikhutdinov, has been sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of high treason and espionage.
The Committee of National Security (UQK) said on October 7 that Shaikhutdinov's verdict and sentence had been announced on September 21.
The UQK added that two other men in the case, Leonid Skakovsky and Oleg Zhdan, had also been handed prison terms.
Skakovsky was sentenced to 11 years and three months on a high treason charge, while Zhdan got 11 years in prison after he was convicted of espionage.
The KNB statement did not give any other details.
The 63-year-old Shaikhutdinov had served as deputy secretary of Kazakhstan’s Security Council since 2009. In 2015 he was promoted to the post of first deputy secretary.
In late March this year, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev removed him from the post.