Kazakh National Security Committee confirms death of head of Border Guard Academy

Talgat Yesetov, the Head of the Border Guard Serice Academy, Photo:Tengrinews.kzTalgat Yesetov, the head of the Border Guard Service Academy, was founded dead in his office, the press service for the Kazakh National Security Committee has reported.

"The body of Major-General Talgat Yesetov, the head of the Border Guard Service Academy of the Kazakh National Security Committee, was found in his office in Almaty at 8:00 p.m. on January 31, 2013," the National Security Committee press service said in a report published on the website of the Kazakh presidential central communications service.

"There is information that Talgat Yesetov committed suicide," the report says.

A group of investigators and operatives led by military prosecutors is working on the site.

A source in the law enforcement agencies told Interfax earlier on Thursday that Yesetov had committed suicide in his office.

Yesetov, 48, was head of the Ucharal border guard unit, the head of the regional departments Soltustik (North) and Ontustik (South) of the Kazakh National Security Committee's Border Guard Service. He was awarded medals.

Turganbek Stambekov, acting head of the Kazakh National Security Committee's Border Guard Service, died in a plane crash on December 25, 2012. The plane, which crashed near Shymkent, was carrying 27 people, including Stambekov, his wife, and the heads of the regional units of the department Ontustik. All people aboard the plane were killed.

A conflict in the Kazakh National Security Committee's Border Guard Service was reported in August 2012, when Colonel Artur Akhnazarov, former head of the commandant department of the Kazakh National Security Committee's Border Guard Service Academy, and Colonel Vitaly Khristiy, deputy head of the department, gave a press conference on August 6 where they said they had found violations in the academy, which led to their prosecution for "insulting a serviceman." There is no information as to whether this conflict is linked to the current events in the academy.

Interfax