Jailed Kazakh Uranium Company Chief Requests Hospitalization

The former president of Kazakhstan's Uranium-producing giant KazAtomProm says he needs to be hospitalized, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Mukhtar Dzhakishev was released from the hospital and returned to the National Security Committee's (KNB) detention center in Astana on October 21.

His lawyer, Nurlan Beisekeyev, told RFE/RL that he saw his client on October 26 and that he looked very sick.

Dzhakishev told Beisekeyev that detention center officials had to call an ambulance for him because he had high blood pressure.

Last week, Dzhakishev passed out and again an ambulance was called.

Beisekeyev says he is not able to obtain his client's medical files with more information about his health problems.

KNB officials told RFE/RL that Dzhakishev does not need hospitalization.

Dzhakishev and a number of his associates were sacked from their positions and officially charged with financial mismanagement and corruption in May.

He has been kept in a cell at a KNB detention center since then.

His relatives and other supporters say the case against him is politically motivated.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty