Kazakh Deputy Defense Minister Arrested For Bribery

Kazakh Deputy Defence Minister Bagdat MaikeevA court in Kazakhstan has ordered the country's deputy defense minister into pretrial detention until February 20 on charges of bribery, rferl.org reports. 

General Baghdat Maikeev was detained on February 11.

Investigators say he is suspected of accepting at least $1.5 million in bribes.

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

In December 2013, 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.

In July 2013, the former head of the Kazakh military armaments' department, General Almas Asenov, was sentenced to 11 years in jail on charges of accepting bribes to ignore faulty checks on An-72 aircraft.