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  • A court in Central Asia's Kyrgyzstan on Thursday imposed a fine of a few thousand dollars on a former customs official convicted of overseeing major corruption and who is under US sanctions. The court in the capital Bishkek then ordered Rayimbek Matraimov -- widely seen as a powerbroker before a political crisis led to a change in leaders last year -- released from months of house arrest. The court justified its decision to fine him the equivalent of just over $3,000 by saying Matraimov had paid back around $24 million to the state in damages lost through corruption schemes that he oversaw during his time as deputy director of the Customs Service. Matraimov was released from house arrest and handed the fine following a court hearing that lasted less than an hour, a court spokesman told AFP on Thursday. The United States Treasury last year imposed sanctions on both Matraimov and his wife over allegations he helped launder $700 million. US ambassador Donald Lu in December earned a rebuke from Kyrgyzstan's foreign ministry for calling on civil society to campaign for Matraimov's conviction. The ministry said Lu's rmarks contained "elements of interference" in Kyrgyz affairs. A party closely associated with Matraimov's family, Mekenim Kyrgyzstan, was at the heart of vote buying allegations that sparked the October crisis and saw the results of a parliamentary ballot annulled and populist Sadyr Japarov emerge as the new head of state. Japarov had initially pledged to bring Matraimov to justice over claims first aired in a media report that he was at the centre of a scheme that funnelled $700 million out of the impoverished republic. Japarov complained that Matraimov was connected to "90 percent of state officials". But shortly after Matraimov's arrest in October Japarov said it would be pointless to jail the powerbroker as the state would not see any economic benefit from the move. Matraimov was placed under house arrest after striking a deal to cooperate with authorities. The $24 million he paid back to the state was transferred to a bank account controlled by the State National Security Committee, the committee said. Anti-corruption campaigners who had rallied for Matraimov's arrest voiced concerns over the transparency of the deal. Matraimov is rumoured to have bankrolled a number of expensive political campaigns in Kyrgyzstan, including for the two presidents who preceded Japarov. Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous country of 6.5 million, depends on China for trade and investment and Russia as a destination for hundreds of thousands of citizens seeking work. tol-cr/acl/lc
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  • Kyrgyz powerbroker fined in major corruption case
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