The trial of nine people including B.Khurts, the controversial former director of Mongolian’s General Intelligence Agency (GIA) and former Attorney General G.Erdenebat concluded on 19 August at the Tuv Province Criminal Court after six days of hearings. However, the judges ruled to return the case to the prosecution due to insufficient evidence.

B.Khurts was taken to the 461st Detention Centre on 23 April. The ex-spy-chief has been accused of breaching the laws on intelligence procedures by using torture to obtain confessions from defendants of the much-publicised murder case of the politician S.Zorig. The former spy-master had also been involved in a covert operation to capture a Mongolian dissident living in France and forcibly bring him home. The victim of Mongolia’s only known case of ‘rendition’ allegedly died under interrogation.

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. who one of the heroes of Mongolia’s peaceful transition to democracy and a likely future prime-minister The murder case was transferred to the Criminal Police Department from Independent Authority of Anti-Corruption due to the lack of human resources on 19 March.