DUSHANBE, May 19, 2016, Asia-Plus – Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz Service reports a court in Bishkek has sentenced a former Kyrgyz prime minister''s son, Altynbek Muraliyev, to 12 years in prison on espionage charges.

Ainura Toktosheva, a spokeswoman for Kyrgyzstan''s Supreme Court, told RFE/RL that Bishkek''s Birinchi Mai district court on May 17 found Muraliyev guilty of passing classified materials to the secret services of an undisclosed foreign country.

Muraliyev was sentenced the same day at the closed-door trial.

He was working as the head of the Kyrgyz government''s department on foreign relations when he was arrested on November 1, 2014.

Muraliyev is the son of Amangeldy Muraliev, who was prime minister from 1999 to 2000.

Altynbek Muraliyev graduated from a university in Turkey in the early 1990s and later worked for several years at Turkey''s embassy in Bishkek.