Second former Kyrgyz PM charged

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan: A former prime minister of Kyrgyzstan has been arrested and charged with corruption following a scandal that saw a power plant fail as temperatures plummeted in the ex-Soviet nation last winter.

Zhantoro Satybaldiyev is the second ex-premier to be arrested in relation to the $400-million modernisation programme of the main power plant in the capital Bishkek. Satybaldiyev was also charged with "abetting a crime" and will remain in custody during the course of the investigation, Kyrgyzstan’s state committee for national security said late on Wednesday.

The move follows the arrest earlier this month of ex-premier Sapar Isakov on charges of lobbying in the interest of TBEA, a Chinese company that later won the contract to carry out the multi-million-dollar renovation. The power plant collapsed in January, just months after the project’s completion, triggering a public uproar.