Second former PM charged over Kyrgyz power plant collapse

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 (350-million-euro) 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 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.