A court in Turkmenistan has handed down a 24-year prison sentence to Saparmamed Valiyev, the ex-oil minister of the former Soviet republic in Central Asia. Another former official, Ilyas Charyyev, head of the Turkmenneftegaz oil and gas trading corporation, was convicted of corruption and embezzlement and sentenced to 25 years behind bars. The 25-year prison term is the equivalent of capital punishment in Turkmenistan. The general prosecutor’s office of Turkmenistan said that during the investigation law enforcers had seized $25 million, 107 kilograms of gold and jewelry, 20 cars, 14 houses and five country-houses on the Caspian shore. (ITAR-TASS)