A former director of Kazakhstan’s feared intelligence agency has been given a lengthy prison sentence, as a ruthless power struggle between rival factions surrounding the country’s president widens. From 2001 to 2006, Nartai Dutbayev directed the Kazakh National Security Committee (KNB), a direct institutional descendant of the Soviet-era KGB. Founded in 1992, the KNB is today directly controlled by Kazakhstan’s authoritarian President, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Many officials serving in senior KNB positions are members of the president’s family, or close friends.
For many years, Dutbayev enjoyed
unchallenged power, which was afforded to him by way of his close links
to the presidential palace. But in 2006, he resigned from his top KNB
post in the aftermath of the murder of popular Kazakh opposition
politician Altynbek Sarsenbaev. Ten members of a specialist commando
unit within the KNB were found guilty of Sarsenbaev’s murder. He was
killed soon after he announced his decision to compete electorally
against President Nazarbayev. But Dutbayev was never personally censured
by the government. Then, in December of last year, Dutbayev was
arrested on charges of “divulging government secrets”. The former spy
chief’s trial began in July of this year, but was conducted in its
entirety behind closed doors.
This past Monday it was reported that Dutbayev was sentenced
to 7 ½ years in prison for espionage on August 24. It is not known why
Dutbayev’s sentence was announced to the country’s media more than two
weeks after it was formally imposed by the court. Additionally, Kazakh
authorities have said nothing about who Dutbayev is believed to have
divulged government secrets to, or why. Three alleged accomplices of
Dutbayev, including former senior KNB officials Erlan Nurtaev and Nurlan
Khasen, were also sentenced to between three and five years in prison
for espionage.
Many observers believe that the jailing
of the KNB officials is part of a broader power struggle that is
currently taking place between rival factions competing to succeed
President Nazarbayev. Kazakhstan’s leader has ruled the former Soviet
Republic with an iron fist since before its independence from the USSR
in 1991. The KNB appears to be a central player in the unfolding power
struggle between the country’s governing elites. Almost exactly nine
years ago, a Kazakh intelligence officer tried
unsuccessfully to abduct another KNB former director, Alnur Musaev, who
was living in self-imposed exile in Austria at the time. Many believe
that he was acting under Nazarbayev’s direct orders. In 2014, two Kazakh
men, believed to be KNB officers, tried unsuccessfully to abduct Viktor Khrapunov,
Kazakhstan’s former Minister for Energy and Coal, who also served as
mayor of Almati, before leaving Kazakhstan for Switzerland.
Dutbayev is reportedly already in prison.
He is believed to be sharing a cell with Serik Akhmetov, Kazakhstan’s
former prime minister, who is serving 11 years for alleged corruption.
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