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Politics

Mongolia's prime minister removes his justice minister 2 days after the prisons chief accused him in public over his driver's relatives

Prime Minister Uchral relieved Justice and Interior Minister S. Amarsaikhan of his post on Wednesday, the government's press office said, because the branch responsible for the country's internal security 'has become unable to operate normally'. On Monday the head of the Court Decision Enforcement General Office, A. Namsamand, had told the media that the minister had his driver's wife and a younger sibling appointed as heads and threatened over other appointments.

Mongolia's prime minister removes his justice minister 2 days after the prisons chief accused him in public over his driver's relatives

ikon.mn reported the decision at 09:50 Ulaanbaatar time and Montsame carried the press office's statement at 11:39. The prime minister's reasoning, in Montsame's wording: the situation in the justice and interior sector had reached a level that harms 'the normal operation of, and public trust in, the sector responsible for ensuring the country's security'. In ikon.mn's, the branch performing special state functions 'has become unable to operate normally' and cooperation with the relevant authorities has become impossible. Uchral also ordered that the senior and mid-level managers of the subordinate agency named in the affair be relieved of their duties. No successor or acting minister is named in either report.

Namsamand's statement went out on Monday through named outlets, ikon.mn reported that day, citing difficulties in his agency's work. In Namsamand's account the minister asked for his own driver's wife and a younger sibling to be made heads, and 'when he said make them heads, they were made'; on some appointments he 'says in so many words and without them that they are not to be made, and threatens'. No answer from Amarsaikhan appears in ikon.mn's or Montsame's reports.

No successor or acting minister is named in either report.

The Court Decision Enforcement General Office runs the prisons and enforces court judgments under the justice and interior ministry. The removal lands in the first week of the autumn session of the State Great Khural, which opened on Tuesday with the 2026 budget rewrite and the 2027 budget as its first business.