ASTANA. May 20 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's Deputy Education and Science Minister Sayat Shayakhmetov has been detained and placed under house arrest, the press service of the State Agency for Combating Economic and Corruption Crime (the financial police) reports.
The official is suspected of embezzling almost 1.5 billion tenge from state coffers, a Monday newsletter of the financial police says.
The newsletter says that on April 29 the financial police launched a criminal case of embezzlement in relation to the construction of an educational institution in Ust-Kamenogorsk, in East Kazakhstan.
"Vice Minister of Education and Science S. Shayakhmetov and General Director of the Directorate for Educational Facilities under construction A. Pak were detained on May 14 on suspicion of committing this crime. On May 17, under a court writ Shayakhmetov was placed under house arrest and Pak under arrest," the newsletter says.