The Chingeltei District Court decided today (25 April) to extend the detention of B.Khurts, the controversial former director of Mongolian’s General Intelligence Agency (GIA) for 15 days at the request of the prosecutors. He has been detained by the Criminal Police Department over the ‘torture to confess’ case. B.Khurts was taken to the 461st Detention Centre on 23 April. While in custody, he refused to give a statement without formal approval of D.Gerel, the current director of GIA.

B.Khurts was accused of breaching of laws on intelligence procedures for having used  torture to obtain a confession from defendants of the much-publicised murder case of the politician S.Zorig, who one of the heroes of Mongolia’s peaceful transition to democracy and a likely future prime-minister. Following an investigation lasting two decades – in which there have been accusations of cover-ups and during which numerous people, including the victim’s wife, have been detained – Ts.Amgalanbaatar and two others were sentenced to 24-25 years in prison for the murder of S.Zorig.

The murder of S.Zorig case was transferred to the Criminal Police Department from Independent Authority of Anti-Corruption due to the lack of human resources on 19 March.