Kyrgyzstan

When Kyrgyzstan's president seized power in 2020, he pledged that the era of political witch-hunts had come to an end.Sadyr Japarov had ...

One person who has had his property confiscated is Almazbek Atambayev, the imprisoned former president, who also worked his way to the top by means of a stint as prime minister in that interim government. Aziza Abdyrasulova, a rights activist, noted that less than 2 percent of the more than 5,000 criminal cases opened after the ethnic unrest have been closed to satisfaction. There has been speculation that the Prosecutor General intends to pursue the freezing of assets belonging to another six members of the interim government, including Roza Otunbayeva, who should enjoy immunity as the then-acting president. The GKNB has instead chosen to focus on claims that the interim government allegedly offered its backing to Kadyrjan Batyrov, a prominent ethnic Uzbek businessman regularly accused, without evidence, of promoting separatist sentiments among fellow Uzbeks. Their investigation lasted more than a year and more than 15 former and current officials were questioned. Supporters of Keneshbek Dushebayev, a former head of the security services, Ismail Isakov, an ex-defence minister, and Bektur Asanov, once the governor of the southern Jalal-Abad region, all of them critics of the Japarov administration, say the probe is “motivated by revenge.” Although the bulk of those killed were ethnic Uzbeks, almost nobody has faced prosecution over those deaths.