Turkey extradites Kazakhstani general on the run

As Prosecutor General Berik Asylov told Kursiv, former police general Serik Kudebayev has been extradited from Turkey to Kazakhstan. He is currently in custody.

«Kudebayev is accused of abuse of power and torture of protesters in January 2022,» the agency said in a statement.

Earlier this month Kudebayev didn’t show up in court and instead left the country.

Over the period from 2020 to February 2022, he served as head of the Department of Police of the Almaty region. In April 2022, he was accused of abuse of power and discharged from the office. The pre-trial investigation against Kudebayev started in January 2023.

At the end of March 2023, Kudebayev didn’t show up in court. The court decided to bring him to the next hearings in April by force but by that time Kudebayev had left the country through Kyrgyzstan and then Turkey. The government issued a warrant for him and deployed 300 border guard personnel to search for him.