Kyrgyz court sentences Tashiev, seven others to four years

A Bishkek court has announced its final decision in the criminal case against former head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security (GKNB) Kamchybek Tashiev and seven other defendants. Instead of the nine-year prison terms prosecutors requested, the court sentenced each defendant to four years, Kloop reported on Telegram.

Along with Tashiev, the defendants include former Prosecutor General Kurmankul Zulushev, former Speaker of Parliament Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu, as well as Bekbolot Talgarbekov, Kursan Asanov, Kurmanbek Dyikanbaev, Aaly Karashev, and Emil Uzakbaev.

Although the main charge initially related to preparations for a violent seizure of power, the court dropped it during the trial. Ultimately, the court found all eight defendants guilty of obstructing the exercise of electoral rights.

Each of the eight defendants was sentenced to four years in prison and two years of probation, with no property confiscation.

At the beginning of the trial, state prosecutors had requested nine-year prison terms for the defendants.

Context

The criminal prosecution of Tashiev and his close associates followed the publication of an open letter on Feb. 9 demanding an early presidential election due to a dispute over Sadyr Japarov’s term in office. The Interior Ministry investigators characterized the letter as an attempt to destabilize the situation in preparation for a subsequent coup d’état.